With the start of Washington’s legislative session now less than a week away, I wanted to compile of a list of the top Twitter accounts to understand what will undoubtedly be a bruising, contentious and possibly historic 105 days to come (and, if the past is any guide, some weeks on top of that).

It seems trite to say at the dawn of 2015 that politics, journalism and the reaction-cycles happen in real time, with Twitter being the main conduit for that information. My goal in producing this list is to supply you with what I consider to be the best accounts to grasp what’s happening in Olympia as it happens.

This is admittedly a subjective analysis based on the people, organizations and lawmakers I find the most informative, interesting and insightful on Twitter. It’s not driven by the number of followers they’ve got, or the Klout score they have. If we were only in this for the web traffic, you’d see a lot more articles on the Wire like “15 Cats React to Jay Inslee’s Budget Proposal,” or “Which ‘Game of Thrones’ Character Is House Speaker Frank Chopp?”

Finally, you can follow me at @ByPeterJensen, and our main account at @WaStateWire. If you’re wondering why there’s 42 accounts, it’s got something to do with our state’s birth date.

MEDIA

Puget Sound region

Associated Press

• Rachel La Corte @RachelAPOly
• Phuong Le @APPhuong
• Donna Blankinship @dgblankinship

The News Tribune (Tacoma) & The Olympian

• Jordan Schrader @Jordan_Schrader
• Melissa Santos @MelissaSantos1
• Brad Shannon @BradShannon2

The Seattle Times

• Jim Brunner @Jim_Brunner
• Joe O’Sullivan @OlympiaJoe

The Herald (Everett)

• Jerry Cornfield @DosPueblos

The rest of Washington

The Spokesman Review, The Columbian and The Yakima Herald-Republic

• Jim Camden @jcamden
• Lauren Dake @laurendake
• Mike Faulk @Mike_Faulk

Public Radio

• Austin Jenkins @AustinJenkinsN3
• Kyle Stokes @kystokes
• Tom Banse @TomBanse

TV

• TVW @TVWNews
• Anita Kissee @anitakissee

Web

• Crosscut @Crosscut
• Publicola @publicolanews
• Joel Connelly @JoelConnelly

OUTSIDE INFLUENCE

From the left

• Budget & Policy Center @budget_policy
• Northwest Progressive Institute @Nwprogressive

From the right

• Washington Policy Center @OlympiaWatch
• Washington Research Council @WRCresearch

Business groups

• Association of Washington Business @awbolympia
• National Federation of Independent Business @nfib_wa
• Washington Business Alliance @WABizAlliance

Labor & environmental groups

• Washington Environmental Council @wecprotects
• Climate Solutions @climatesolution
• Working Washington @workingwa

THE FIVE POINTS

• House GOP @WAHouseGOP
• Senate Republicans @WashingtonSRC
• House Democrats @WAHouseDems
• Senate Democrats @WASenDemocrats
• Governor’s Office @WAStateGov

ELECTION INFO

• Secretary of State’s Office @SecStateWa

LAWMAKERS

Democrats

• Reuven Carlyle @ReuvenCarlyle
• Ross Hunter @RossHunter
• Gael Tarleton @GaelTarleton

Republicans

• JT Wilcox @jtwilcox111
• Michael Baumgartner @VoteBaumgartner
• Hans Zeiger @HansZeiger

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