Every lawmaker has a story to tell about his or her political awakening – of the cause that needed championing, of an issue stuck too long on the Legislature’s backburner, or a system failing those it was set up to serve.
It’s an oft-cited element of stump speeches, and a vital crutch in a business reliant on asking complete strangers for their votes – and their money.
But not many have the resonance of Senate Democratic Leader Sharon Nelson’s, whose path to power in Olympia may well trace back to a gravel pit near her home on Maury Island. With control of the Senate depending on the outcome of the Nov. 4 election, Nelson stands to be among the biggest political winners if the Democrats regain a majority, as she would have the inside track to becoming Majority Leader.
Her decade-long fight against a proposed expansion of a sand and gravel mine on Maury Island plays a central role in her political identity and her ascension in the Legislature. It also shows she has no aversion to the kinds of in-the-trenches warfare that legislative fights over long-standing issues like education or the environment can resemble.
In 1997, a mining company on Maury Island, an offshoot of Vashon Island’s eastern shore, proposed to expand its operations from 10,000 tons to 7.5 million tons of product. The massive development brought quick opposition from Nelson, whose citizen activism led her to fight the mining company and argue that the expansion would cause irreparable environmental harm to sensitive habitat and threatened fish species.
She and her fellow activists brought that fight to state and federal regulatory agencies, to the Legislature and eventually to federal court, where they scored the pivotal victory in 2009 when a judge rejected the permit allowing construction of a dock necessary for the mining expansion. The 240-acre mining site was sold to King County to become a public park in 2010, using $19 million in county funding and $14 million in state dollars – that Nelson, by that point a state legislator, helped secure.
“It wouldn’t have happened without her,” said Amy Carey, who succeeded Nelson as leader of an environmental nonprofit formed to lead the fight against the mining expansion. “There were all these twists and turns – they were building the facility. Sharon knew from day one that we were going to win.”
RISING THROUGH THE RANKS IN OLYMPIA
Nelson has risen quickly through the Democratic Party’s ranks in Washington state. She worked as chief of staff to Dow Constantine, then a King County Councilman but now the County Executive, and was appointed to a seat representing the 34th District in the House in 2007. Her district covers Vashon Island, Maury Island, and parts of Burien, White Center and West Seattle. She was elected to the Senate in 2010.
Nelson’s fellow caucus members selected her as Minority Leader last fall, after former Sen. Ed Murray was elected Mayor of Seattle. In this leadership role, she oversees Democrats’ efforts to retake the upper chamber as chair of the Senate Democratic Campaign Committee.
The results of her work won’t be known for another two weeks – at least – but Nelson said she feels confident of her party’s success at the polls, despite the Republicans holding fundraising advantages and having better showings in the August primaries in key Senate races.
In the run-up to Nov. 4, she said Democrats will be stressing messages of protecting social safety nets, women’s access to contraception, and the need to fund both transportation and basic education in the upcoming legislative session.
While independent spending from Tom Steyer, a California billionaire and big donor to the Democratic Party nationally and in Washington state, has attracted a lot of attention, Nelson said the conservative Leadership Council has also been a big spender in state Senate races.
Through its political action committee, the Good Government Leadership Council, the Leadership Council has donated almost $1 million and spent about half that in an effort to hit Democratic candidates in key Senate races, according to the Public Disclosure Commission. Nelson said that financial backing has come from large corporations.
“You’re going to see big oil,” Nelson said. “You’re going to see big tobacco. It shows that corporate America is standing behind the Republican Party.”
But her Republican counterpart in the Senate, Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, said she’s only vilifying companies that employ workers and pay taxes in the state, while saying Steyer has little – if any – connection to Washington.
“If I left it to the people who live, work, pay taxes and create jobs in the state of Washington, I’d feel great about it,” Schoesler said of Republicans gaining a true majority after the election. “But with a billionaire whose biggest asset in Washington is a P.O. box, I’m a little bit nervous. He wants to buy – or at least rent – the Legislature.”
Moreover, Schoesler said the Leadership Council’s funding has come from a wider array of sources than just one donor.
“It doesn’t add up to a million and a half dollars from one interest,” Schoesler said. “The businesses that liberals love to vilify, they pay taxes, they create jobs here, they sell products and produce a service. Our fundraising is very balanced.”
MOVING BEYOND ELECTION DAY
If the Democrats emerge with a majority in the Senate following the election, Nelson would only say she hopes her colleagues would entrust her with the role of Majority Leader, and that they would consider all options in funding basic education to satisfy the state Supreme Court’s McCleary mandates.
“We shouldn’t be taking any options off the table,” Nelson said. “I want my members to look at everything possible. We have to find a solution and it’s not cutting the social safety net.”
If Republicans retain control of the Senate, Nelson said she expects a prolonged, bruising session on budget issues – perhaps stretching out into June as the 2013 session did.
“If there’s still a split between the two chambers, I do think there is a real concern that we’ll be there for quite awhile,” Nelson said. “If they’re in control, it will always be quote ‘bipartisan’ budgets.”
Carey said Nelson’s background in waging lengthy battles on important issues would serve her well for such a session.
“She didn’t lose sight of working to make change,” Carey said. “It’s the same thing you see her do in the Legislature. You may not win the first time up to bat, but you keep going up to bat.”
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