Former state Rep. Mark Miloscia announces bid for state Senate as a Republican — and longtime Democratic incumbent Tracy Eide promptly drops out.
OLYMPIA, March 11.—At this point, two months before filing week, the 30th Legislative District Senate seat in the Federal Way area is suddenly and surpisingly looking like a GOP pickup in the November election. The whole thing started a few days ago, when longtime House member Mark Miloscia, on the outs with the Ds because of his stands on social issues, announced he would run for state Senate as a Republican.
And the other shoe dropped Monday when Democratic incumbent Tracy Eide delivered the stunner — after nearly two decades in office, she won’t be running again.
Now, suddenly, there is a Republican in the race with years of familiarity to voters in the district and a solid record of accomplishment after seven terms in the House. There is no Democrat in the running. And while the Ds can be expected to tap someone for the race, it’s safe to say there won’t be anyone with the ID of Eide.
First things first – Miloscia says he won’t be switching back. Years of frustration with the Democratic Party drove him to it, he says, and nothing has changed. “Do people really expect me to switch back? I mean, that would go against everything I stand for. I’m going to stay with the party that welcomed me. The one that is trying to be the Big Tent – and I sincerely believe the Republicans are that party. So I’m full steam ahead.”
It is a race that is fraught with implications for the balance of power at the statehouse. The Senate is under the control of a bipartisan majority coalition – 24 Republicans and two Democrats, against the 23-member Democratic Caucus. Should the GOP manage to pick up a seat, Republicans will have an outright majority. Given the sharp wind that has been blowing in from Federal Way over the last few days, that is looking like a distinct possibility.
Eide Makes Surprise Announcement
Senate Transportation Co-Chair Eide moves for the 9th Order last session to bring an early version of the transportation package to the Senate floor. The motion was defeated largely along caucus lines, 26-21.
There are 25 seats up for election this year in the 49-member Senate, and while the urban Seattle area is safe for Democrats and the hinterland is safe for Rs, you can always expect a roaring partisan election fight in the swing districts of the Puget Sound suburbs. At this point it is hard to say precisely where the big contests are going to be – it all depends on who runs. About all that seems sure right now is that Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Medina, leader of the Majority Coalition, will face a well-financed challenge on the Democratic side. But the 30th always seemed a likely target – it is a district that goes both ways. And now that Eide has dropped out, it is starting to look like one of the year’s big battlegrounds.
In her announcement Monday afternoon, Eide appeared to be taking pains to say that Miloscia’s entry had nothing to do with her exit. She said she has been planning to step down for years. “Shortly after my re-election in 2010, I decided that this term would be my last, and that I would pour myself into this term and then open the door for someone else. That time is here.”
The thing is, it came as a surprise to everyone else – she hadn’t dropped a clue. Eide has long been a player at the statehouse. First elected to the House in the Democratic sweep year of 1992, she was knocked out in the Republican sweep of 1994. But she came back two years later, and after a second term in the House she moved to the Senate in 1998. In her four terms in the Senate, Eide advanced to leadership, serving as floor leader for the Democratic Caucus. And in the state’s public-policy circles, there is one thing that will always be remembered — her successful effort to pass a bill banning the use of handheld cell phones while driving. For the last few years, whenever one rings a cell phone of someone who is on the road, the usual response is, “I need to put the phone down – I might get in trouble with Sen. Eide.”
When the Majority Coalition took over last year, Eide became co-chair of the Senate Transportation Committee and put her energies and attentions into negotiating a gas-tax deal. Her frustrations regarding the inability to strike a bargain with the Majority Coalition in the Senate were evident as she chatted with Washington State Wire Friday. “The bottom line is that they do not want to vote for a gas tax, period,” she said. “I have tried for two years to put this proposal forward. …This is a game to them.”
The ultimate failure of the transportation effort became plain last week just as Miloscia was announcing his run for office. On Friday Eide wasn’t offering any comment on the upcoming race — most likely a tough one, given the fact that Miloscia had won his last three House races with 59 percent of the vote. Her statement Monday seemed to suffice. Eide said she is leaving with mixed feelings. “I have taken joy and satisfaction in every successful effort on behalf of my constituents and my state, and I’ve agonized over those that came up short. It has been a point of privilege and honor to represent my district. I wish I could have done even more, but I’m sure every legislator feels that way.”
Ds Show Miloscia the Door
Miloscia in 2012 as he launched his unsuccessful campaign for state auditor — one that garnered no Democratic-Party support.
Miloscia presents a fascinating story of his own. He is a former government auditor who sweated the details – as part of the Air Force team that monitored Boeing B-1 contracts, he was the one who discovered the famed $500 light bulb. It wasn’t quite the headline-grabbing procurement scandal that was the notorious $600 toilet seat, but it was in the same league. In the House he was always a bit of a green-eyeshade sort, a never-ending advocate for systematic approaches to state-government oversight — total quality management, lean processes and strategic planning. When he left his seat after 14 years to run for state auditor in 2012, he could point to a lengthy record of support for social services; his labor voting score was highest of any of the three candidates in the Democratic primary. Yet Miloscia, a committed Catholic, learned the hard way that his social-conservative positions on matters such as abortion were an automatic disqualifier for Democratic-party support. It started him wondering about his political allegiance. He hadn’t changed, he says, but his party had.
“It has reached the point where people of faith are literally not welcome anymore in the Democratic Party,” he says. “It makes me sad that somebody like JFK or Martin Luther King or Robert F. Kennedy would not be accepted in the Democratic Party because of their values. The litmus test on some of these issues has reached the point where people of faith are not welcome anymore in any sort of leadership place in the Democratic Party. The prejudice and animosity toward people of faith, whether they are Catholics or [evangelical] Christians or Jews or Muslims has reached a tipping point where there will be nobody like me left.”
Think of it as the flipside of the usual D observation about the Rs. Certainly there is more argument and factional disagreement on the Republican side of the aisle. But the fact that there is conflict among Republicans is a sign of vitality, Miloscia says. What isn’t healthy is the sense on the Democratic side that if you don’t think a certain way, you can’t be a member of the team. The call for uniform thinking has been enforced in recent years by the interest groups that bankroll Democratic campaigns in an increasingly centralized fashion, he says — labor unions, teachers and others. “Republicans are right now having a public debate about where they should be, who they should be, but on the Democratic side the decisions were made silently. I would dare somebody to say that Democrats respect the diversity of people like myself. Where does the faithful Catholic go? I know some people say the Republican Party is bigoted and they are narrowminded and stuff like that, and well, I don’t see that in who they elect. I see great diversity. I don’t see that diversity on the Democratic side.”
Management the Issue
Welcome to the team: Senate Republican Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville.
In some respects Miloscia has always talked more like a Republican, making the management and efficiency of state government his passion. In 2005 he sponsored and passed a bill that ended a 30-year prohibition on performance audits by the state auditor’s office. That gave the auditor a new tool to use in critical analyses of state government functions. In 2012, he passed a last-minute budget amendment requiring every state agency to apply for a Washington State Quality Award – an application that triggers an assessment of its management, accountability and performance.
While Miloscia praises the Inslee administration’s recent foray into strategic planning and lean management, he says there is plenty of room for improvement. When money is tight, the first response on the Democratic side is to raise taxes, not to strive for greater efficiency, he says. “Unfortunately in the Democratic Party there is a huge group of people who think any sort of improvement effort is a waste of time, and that is different than in any [business] organization that is out there. I frankly don’t understand that mindset. You don’t have that kind of group of naysayers in the Republican Party – basically because a lot of them come from a business background. They understand efficiency and effectiveness and how to manage costs, and they know there is waste out there.
“On the other side, people say, oh, you’re spending money for an audit or coming up with metrics? That is a waste of time. We don’t have to measure how well we are doing because we are already doing well. That sort of attitude won’t get you hired in any organization that demands results in the private sector.”
Miloscia says he was recruited to run by Republicans – they approached him – though certainly his affiliation was something he was beginning to ponder himself. Senate Republican Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, says Miloscia will find a more amenable atmosphere in GOP ranks. The party is glad to have him on its side.
“I think Mark Miloscia obviously realized that the party of JFK is no more,” Schoesler says. “He identified himself with fiscal conservatives like [former Democratic state Auditor] Brian Sonntag who are no longer welcome in the party. He saw that the welcome mat had been removed. We like ideas like performance audits, fiscal responsibility. We have a much broader tent than the Democrats and we welcome him to it. I think he is a top-tier candidate – a hardworking, conscientious young man.”
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