Article by Erik Smith. Published on Tuesday, April 26, 2011 EST.


The Washington Legislature kicked off its special session by doing not much at all. House and Senate convened at 9 a.m. and immediately recessed. The Senate returned in the afternoon for back-room party-caucus planning meetings, and it repassed a handful of bills that had been stalled in the regular session. Meanwhile, the House went “at ease” for an indefinite period, meaning leaders hadn’t planned when to begin planning. Then it adjourned until Friday. Only a handful of members attended either opening session. Here, state Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, is one of the few who remained on the floor at 9:15. Not that he had any choice — he is one of the 64 members who have been bumped out of their offices by construction. “We shouldn’t be here,” he said. “We should have finished on time.”

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