Senate Democratic Leader Ed Murray, D-Seattle.

See Also: Many Precedents for Power-Sharing — Lawmakers From Other States, Eras Say it Can Work

OLYMPIA, Dec. 17.—The battle for the high ground is on as Senate Democratic Leader Ed Murray, certain to be aced out of his majority-leader position when the Washington Legislature convenes next month, says his team has a counterplan.

The Dems say they want co-chairmen on just about every committee in the Senate. That seems fair, Murray says. “I think that is a bipartisan offer.”

Though Democrats technically hold the majority in the state Senate, 26 members to the Republicans’ 23, they will lose their power a few minutes after the opening gavel on Jan. 14. That’s because two Democrats say they will vote with the 23 Republicans to establish a new majority caucus that will emphasize fiscal restraint. Members of the new coalition declared a week ago they hoped to demonstrate a spirit of bipartisanship by offering the Democrats the chairmanship of six committees. Democrats have been reacting with anger and frustration, their supporters have been urging them to say no, and the question ever since has been how can they reject bipartisanship and still win an advantage in public opinion?

“I think they got beaten up so badly last Monday to Friday in the press that they realized they needed to make a counteroffer,” says Senate Republican leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville.

So now it comes – a proposal the Democrats maintain is even more bipartisan than the one they were offered. Senate Democrats caucused Monday and settled on their position. They say Democratic and Republican chairmen ought to be named for every committee in the Senate, with the exception of the all-powerful Senate Rules Committee, the committee that decides which bills advance to the Senate floor. The other team can have that one, Murray says.

Negotiating From Weakness

State senators Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, and Rodney Tom, D-Bellevue.

Senate Democrats understand they will lose on the first important motion of the session, Murray acknowledges. State Sen. Rodney Tom, D-Bellevue and state Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, announced last week that they will vote with the Republicans for a rule change that would allow Senate leaders to be elected with a vote from the full floor. Once that happens, the new 25-member majority can vote itself into power. They have designated Tom as their new majority leader.

But Murray says the offer of six chairmanships can hardly be called bipartisan. Under the coalition proposal, Republicans also would get six committees, but those would be the big ones, overseeing matters like the budget, K-12 education, health care and business and labor issues. The Dems would get higher ed, environment, agriculture, to name a few.  Tom and Sheldon would get the deciding votes on the Rules Committee. Three largely non-controversial committees also would be chaired jointly by members of both parties.

The six-committee offer was presented as a take-it-or-leave it deal, Murray complains. “They had a press conference. They didn’t meet with us. It was a stunt, it wasn’t an offer. Because you know, a bunch of rump committees that have most of their responsibilities taken away from them and none of them being the key, major committees, is kind of not a real offer. It is sort of like a setup.”

Pledges Selflessness

The Democratic counterproposal is reminiscent of the arrangement that prevailed when the House was split 49-49 in 1979-80 and 1999-2001. Both parties named committee chairmen and they presided on alternating days – an unwieldy process that nevertheless did split power. Murray said he hopes the other team will take the proposal seriously and negotiate with his caucus before the session begins. The Senate Democrats are happy to talk, he said.

“As far as offices go, I am going to take the smallest office in the Cherberg building,” Murray promises. “I know people can hyperventilate about the size of their offices, so just to be clear, I have already chosen my office. It is a small office in the Cherberg building, on the second floor.

Murray adds, “I am more concerned with the Senate functioning, I am more concerned with the oath that I took to the state constitution, than I am about my position and the position of my party, and that is what we are trying to get at here.”

Other Idea Was Better

Sheldon said Monday he doesn’t like Murray’s idea much, and he doubts anyone else will, either. “I doubt it will be very well received,” he says.

Which might be the point. And while last week’s power-sharing proposal has left the Democrats cold, Sheldon said it has been a hit with editorial writers and the general public. Certainly the fact that it spreads the power beyond the central Puget Sound area has proven popular outside the Seattle city limits. “If it was just a take-it-or-leave it proposal, all of the offices would be vacated, all the committees would be chaired by the coalition. That is not the scenario, and I hope the Democratic Caucus appreciates that.”

Recipe for Gridlock

Meanwhile, Tom is calling the Democratic Caucus proposal a recipe for gridlock. In committees with a long history of cooperation, shared leadership might work – those are the ones the coalition proposed sharing. But in others it would be a nightmare. “We were very cognizant of that when we laid out the arrangements we did,” he said. “I think we really did go to an unprecedented level, and we thought long and hard about it. We thought it was a heck of an offer that a minority caucus had never had. We thought very carefully as far as what committees we can co-chair and what committees we needed in order to hold together the basic principles of our coalition.”

Tom said he’s happy to meet with Murray and talk things out. But he says, “we have to resolve to function as a body – Ed has said that many times – and I just think they are kind of clutching at straw at this point.”

Devastating Use of Quotation Marks

In a joint statement issued Monday, Tom and Schoesler said it is a matter of Senate tradition that the minority caucus makes way for the new majority. Senators need offices, committee staff needs to be organized, and the Senate rules say the management functions are supposed to be placed in the hands of the majority caucus before a session begins. But the way Dems see it, Senate tradition means they’re the majority caucus right up until the vote takes place on opening day. That’s what Murray told Tom in a letter earlier Monday.

One paragraph said the Dems are counting Tom and Sheldon as Republicans and it even might be taken as a veiled hint the Dems will bar Sheldon and Tom from caucusing with them. Queried on the subject, Murray said it is a matter of freedom of association – the Dems can choose with whom they wish to associate. “They need to be in one of the caucuses or the other,” he says.

Murray’s letter states, “I would note that members of our caucus reject the notion that both you and Sen. Sheldon are, under your proposed structure, designated as Democrats for committee allocation purposes, even while you intend to organize and caucus with the other 23 elected Republican members of the Senate. For example, we recognize that this would provide Republicans with an effective 12-7 majority on the Rules Committee, as well as a 3-1 majority on the very important energy committee with Sen. Sheldon as one of the ‘Democratic’ members.”

The letter is signed “Senate Majority Leader Ed Murray.”

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