Sue Lani Madsen: Even with one-party control, Statehouse still has room for surprises

It turned out to be interesting albeit not exciting.

On April 17, I spent a day hanging out in the wings of the Washington state Capitol. Most of the business before the Legislature was of the rather tedious kind, and members had plenty of opportunities to drop by my comfy chair and visit.

When asked for an observation on how the session would end, then Minority Leader Rep. J. T. Wilcox, R-Yelm, predicted “It’s going to be boring.”

Saying the words “special session” caused tired legislators to recoil, but one is looking likelier after Sunday’s dramatic plot twist. Watching the end of session performances on TVW is almost like being there without the five-hour drive. A special session, if any, will take place under a new generation of Republican House leadership with Minority House Leader Rep. Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, and Deputy Leader Rep. Mike Steele, R-Chelan.

With only a few hours to the final curtain, a drug possession bill to fix the Washington Supreme Court’s Blake decision failed on a vote of 55 to 43. Tuesday’s front page reported on the results saying “Democrats were stunned.” A more accurate statement would be “Democrats claimed to be stunned” when the bill earned no Republican votes.

“Republicans are not responsible for what bill comes to the floor. They decided what bill was going to be there and had clear indications from me in spite of what the governor had to say,” said Wilcox, speaking on a panel of Republican legislators recorded the day after session ended.

According to Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, the House version failed to gain Republican support because the Democrats chose to run a bill that wasn’t supported by a stakeholder’s group of law enforcement officials, mayors and prosecutors.

“The bill was not workable by the folks that have to make it happen,” he said. He outlined the four sticking points that need to be addressed in the House bill to make it bipartisan. Lack of Republican support should have surprised no one who was listening.

A more stunning development was watching as 25% of Democrats voted against the bill. So naturally Sen. Andy Billig, D-Spokane, and Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, blamed Republicans for the bill’s failure in their post-session media panel. So did Gov. Jay Inslee in his own press conference Sunday night.

There are 58 Democrats in the Washington House of Representatives, enough to pass any bill any day of the week, even on the last day of session. When a journalist pressed the Senate Democratic leadership on the 15 Democrats who voted no, Dhingra jumped in to answer sharply. “There were zero Republicans and that’s the critical component here … if we want serious solutions we need Republicans to show up.”

For the Republicans reading this, we’ll pause here until you stop laughing. For Dhingra, Billig and Inslee to blame Republicans for lack of bipartisanship when Democrats have control of both chambers is disingenuous. Democrats only “need Republicans to show up” when their left-wing extremists get in the way of the leadership’s agenda.

And when the increasingly rare moderate Democrats do commit to bipartisan solutions with Republicans, all it takes is pressure from Gov. Inslee’s office. Case in point: the assassination of HB1720 and its carefully balanced riparian protection, covered in a column published earlier this session (“The rest of the riparian story,” Feb. 23).

Back in the wings on April 17, one legislator described how a carefully negotiated provision designed to reach 80% Republican support was struck in committee, and the Democrats celebrating by “spiking the football.” In her words, there has been a “caustic disregard” from the majority party for other opinions.

Pandemic restrictions the past two years isolated lawmakers and tilted one-party control farther left, said Rep. Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda. Kretz, who retired from serving as deputy leader at the end of the session, said he hopes the public wakes up to the overreach. “We have to come back to the middle and find common ground.”

He wasn’t the only legislator who commented on how necessary it was to get back to face-to-face meetings. Rep. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, happened by on his way to a break room. When asked for the positive and negative aspects of one-party control, he acknowledged setting the agenda matters, and “you do get to do that in the majority.” Riccelli emphasized he does want to see bills pass that are applicable statewide and bipartisan, and working remote or hybrid interfered with that goal. “It made it hard to work together,” Riccelli said.

Inslee likely realizes there’s no point in calling legislators back until they’ve worked out a compromise. Democratic leadership has two options to prevent a patchwork of laws across the state on July 1. Bring their own left-wing extremists back to the table by further weakening the Blake fix on drug possession or work with Republicans as the critical component to a serious solution. This might get interesting.

Contact Sue Lani Madsen at rulingpen@gmail.com.