Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, surveys the Senate floor during the dramatic vote on the night of March 2.
OLYMPIA, Nov. 16.—Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, says he won’t seek re-election to his leadership post, throwing the Republican leadership position open just as the Senate contemplates big changes in the way it operates.
Hewitt, 66, says he will be the biggest cheerleader in the Senate for the possible bipartisan takeover from the middle. He just won’t be captain of the team. Re-elected last week to his Senate seat by a 70-30 margin, Hewitt says he doesn’t have the energy to lead the caucus. Surgery earlier this year for a cancerous tumor in his abdomen has convinced him it is time to slow down.
“I have been thinking about this for a while since I had my surgery earlier this year, and it has made me reprioritize things in my life, made me think about what I used to do and what I used to enjoy. Being a leader takes an incredible amount of time, not just during session but away from session, and I have to travel an awful lot just because of the political side of it, in representing the caucus. I prefer to slow down a little bit and spend more time at home and more time on myself.”
Hewitt was elected to the Senate in 2000, defeating Democrat Valoria Loveland, D-Pasco. He was elected Senate Republican leader in 2005. Last session Hewitt was a general in one of the most dramatic battles to take place on the Senate floor, as three Democrats crossed party lines to vote with minority Republicans for a budget, turning the Senate upside down and changing the course of the legislative session. The vote brought Republicans to the table in negotiations with the House, and the result was a bipartisan budget and reform measures that went substantially further than might have happened under Democrats alone.
More Upheaval on the Way
Hewitt leads last year’s bipartisan coalition at a March 15 news conference.
The Senate is poised for the same sort of upheaval in 2013 as two of those same Democrats, state sens. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, and Rodney Tom, D-Bellevue, will seek for a rule change that would require the majority leader and committee chairmen to be elected by a vote of the full Senate. Ordinarily those decisions are made by the majority party behind closed doors, and Democrats have a narrow advantage. But if Republicans manage to win a tight Senate race in Vancouver, the coalition will have 25 votes, enough to control the Senate.
Hewitt said he thinks this is the right moment to step back and encourage a new model of leadership in the Senate. He said he will probably endorse a successor, though it is a bit soon to talk about candidates. He said he began informing members and staffers of his decision Friday.
“We’re trying to bring a more centrist government in,” he said. “I think the public is just clamoring, actually clamoring, for people to work together from both sides of the aisle. I’m going to be there for advice and helping promote that idea.”
Surgery is Signal
Hewitt said his surgery in April convinced him that it was time to rethink his pace. Though the operation was successful and surgeons reported that the thymoma was caught before it had a chance to spread, Hewitt said complications from the surgery placed him back in the hospital another six days this year. He said he has not recovered his full lung capacity. “I get tired easier, and you know, you can’t get tired when you are in session.”
Hewitt and his wife Cory have two grown sons. Hewitt owned Hewitt Distributing, a Walla Walla beer-and-wine distributing company, for 23 years.
Republicans will elect a new leader Nov. 28.
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