Big changes in Washington in the ‘Teens, most made by voters

Washington voters – not their elected officials – made many of the biggest changes to the state in the second decade of the 21st Century. They ratified same-sex marriage, legalized recreational marijuana, tightened gun laws, approved charter schools and pulled the state out of the wholesale and retail liquor business, which it had controlled since the end of prohibition.

In choosing their leaders, they finished the decade about where they started it, with Democrats firmly in control of both chambers of the Legislature.

Democrats occupied the governor’s mansion for the entire decade. The current occupant, Jay Inslee, made a brief and unsuccessful run for president before deciding to try being the first to seek a third term in more than 40 years. Eastern Washington voters sent Republicans to the U.S. House of Representatives, while their West Side counterparts mainly sent Democrats. Incumbent Democrats Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell won re-election campaigns and continued to climb in seniority.

Here are 10 of the state’s biggest political stories of the decade:

Biggest social change: Same sex marriage

The Legislature approved in early 2012, and voters agreed in the fall, to legalize same-sex marriage, putting Washington ahead of the 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that protected same sex marriage in all states. When a Tri-Cities florist refused to sell a floral arrangement to a gay couple for their wedding, she was taken to court by the state Attorney General’s office for discrimination under the consumer protection law, became an icon for Christian conservatives, but lost. That ruling has so far been upheld.

Biggest legal change: Recreational marijuana

In 2012, voters also legalized recreational marijuana for state residents 21 and older, adding it to medical marijuana which had been legalized by voters in 1998. That required the state to set up a system of licenses for growing, processing and selling various forms of marijuana. It also imposes significant taxes on marijuana and the state collects about $275 million a year on a drug that remains illegal under federal law, which means the burgeoning industry has trouble securing banking services.

Biggest turnaround: The state budget

In 2010, with the state still trying to pull its way out of the recession, the Legislature faced a $2.8 billion budget shortfall, which it closed with a mixture of cuts to programs and salaries, new taxes and federal funds. For four of the five years afterward, lawmakers went into overtime to hammer out a budget, even though an improving economy was adding billions to the state coffers. At the start of the decade, the state’s two-year operating budget was $31.4 billion; the current two-year budget is $52.4 billion, fueled by an economic boom and additional taxes.

Biggest political takeover: Senate coalition government

Democrats had a 13-seat Senate majority in 2010 but only a three-seat majority in the Senate after the 2012 election. Shortly after the Legislature convened in 2013 two disaffected Democrats joined with Republicans to form a GOP-dominated Majority Coalition Caucus. In exchange for switching sides, Sen. Rodney Tom of Bellevue was made majority leader, and Sen. Tim Sheldon of Potlach president pro tem. Tom retired in 2014, but Sheldon’s vote gave the GOP control of the closely divided Senate until the start of the 2018 session, after a special election for an empty seat was won by a Democrat.

Biggest separation of powers fight: McCleary ruling

For years, parents in some school districts have argued the state is falling down on its constitutional responsibility to support public schools. In January 2012, the state Supreme Court agreed, and ordered the Legislature to fix it. It took a finding of contempt and daily fines of $100,000 before lawmakers settled on a fix in 2018 that involved increasing the state property tax levy and reducing many local levies, along with redefining what parts of education the state must provide and what options are left up to the districts. In 2019 they needed a fix of the fix, and many people expect that to continue.

Most successful politician: Cathy McMorris Rodgers

The Spokane-area Republican won re-election to the U.S. House of Representatives every two years, sometimes against light opposition but in 2018 against a serious challenge from former WSU-Spokane chancellor and state Sen. Lisa Brown. While Republicans held the House majority, she was in GOP leadership. Rumors that she was being considered for Mitt Romney’s vice president in 2012 and for Donald Trump’s Secretary of Interior in 2016 had local Republicans lining up to take her place but she has never faced a serious GOP challenge for re-election.

Least successful politician: Dino Rossi

The former state legislator probably has had the toughest losses in major campaigns. After losing the governor’s race twice in the previous decade – the first time by a mere 133 votes – Rossi ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2010, and for the U.S. House in 2018 in what had previously been a safe Republican 8th Congressional District. In 2012 and 2017, however, he was twice drafted to fill empty seats in the Legislature because of his experience with the state budget.

Biggest get: Medical schools in Spokane

At the start of the decade, the University of Washington and Washington State University were working on an expansion of the UW multistate medical education program in Spokane. WSU President Elson Floyd, unhappy with the progress by UW, began pushing for a separate medical school at the Riverpoint Campus. It generated what some called an Apple Cup for medical education in the Legislature, but Floyd’s efforts overcame the strong UW caucus and the Legislature eventually gave WSU the authority, and the money, for a separate school. UW then formed a partnership with Gonzaga University for its Spokane program. The WSU school was named for Floyd, who died of cancer after it was approved.

The windmill most tilted at: The state of Liberty

The political divide between Eastern and Western Washington resurrected an idea at least 100 years old: to split the state in two at the Cascade Crest. Spokane Valley Republican Rep. Matt Shea, its most vocal proponent, introduced the idea in the 2015 session and every session since. It has yet to get a hearing much less a vote, but that hasn’t stopped Shea and other proponents from designing a state flag, adopting a state motto and selling various items for the “51st State.”

Most ubiquitous political figure: Tim Eyman

The state’s premier initiative entrepreneur, Tim Eyman started the decade with a successful measure to require supermajorities in the Legislature to approve taxes, a concept that passed three times before the state Supreme Court ruled it was, as critics always contended, unconstitutional. He finished it with another oldie but goodie, a requirement that license tabs cost no more than $30 to renew. In between he was sued by the attorney general’s office for campaign finance violations with allegations he got kickbacks from a company that charges money to gather signatures on petitions. He also announced plans to run for governor in 2020 as an independent.