Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane.

OLYMPIA, Feb. 4.—There was one notable absence from the Senate floor Friday when the Legislature’s upper chamber took its first two big votes of the year, on unemployment insurance and the state budget.

            Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, rushed to the hospital Friday morning when she learned her son Lucas had been injured in a rollover accident in Olympia. Lucas Brown is a student at The Evergreen State College.

            According to Sgt. J.J. Gundermann of the Washington State Patrol, Lucas Brown, 18, was involved in an accident at approximately 3 a.m.

            His car ran off the road and flipped. Brown was forced to kick out the windshield in order to free himself.

            Gundermann said Brown was taken to the hospital by people at the scene and his injuries are considered minor. But for a time Friday morning young Brown was considered “missing” and the story swept the statehouse.

            Gundermann said the witnesses told officers that they did not smell the odor of alcohol. But when the patrol finally tracked Brown down at the hospital several hours later, officers administered a portable breath test and came up with a reading of 0.02. That’s less than the legal limit of 0.08, but because Brown is under 21, he was issued a ticket for minor-in-possession by reason of consumption. He also received a ticket for a vehicle leaving the roadway.

            “We’re treating this investigation as we would any other accident,” Gundermann said.

            A Legislative Celebrity

Those with long memories may remember Lucas as something of an unwitting celebrity in the state Legislature himself. Shortly after his birth, Ms. Brown, then a state representative, frequently brought baby Lucas to the House chamber. At one point during a House debate, as Brown was feeding her child from a bottle, chief clerk Alan Thompson made a private call to Brown asking her not to take her child on the House floor, saying that “other members” had complained. Brown went public, the story made headlines, reporters demanded to know the names of the “other members,” and Thompson declined to elaborate. Thompson then was attacked by women’s groups for insensitivity and general stuffiness.
According to Brown’s official Senate biography, the incident affirmed Brown’s commitment to “family-friendly workplace policies” and “resulted in the annual event in which legislators bring children and grandchildren on the House floor.”

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