Helen Sommers: An Oral History

pg. 98 Daniel J. Evans
others take credit, as two of the most effective ways
to get something accomplished. When you reach
out to others and work with people in a bipartisan
way, it’s amazing what you can accomplish.”
I know that was your position; and I know Helen
Sommers felt very strongly the same way!
Governor Evans: When you start out in politics, you
have a belief, and it falls closer to one party than the
other. So that’s the party you join to work with, and
work for. But when it comes to issues, at the state
level particularly, I’ve often said I’ve never seen a
“Republican fish” or a “Democrat highway!” These
are the kinds of issues that you may have a little
different view on how you accomplish those things.
But good ideas are not confined to one side of the
aisle. It really is worthwhile to work across the aisle
to pick up the good ideas and the things you think
will work, and then work with legislators who will
help you out. I also tried to do that between the
House and the Senate.
And that’s where I think today our political
system has run into real road-bumps, because at
the local, state and the national levels we’re just
not as inclined to be bi-partisan or to work across
the party lines. I think that leads to a lot of stalemate,
which is what we’re seeing at the national
level right now.
Someday, somebody is going to figure that out.
People will win elective office without using negative
advertising, and they’ll go across the aisle to get
ideas to be successful, and they will be successful!
And people will look around and say, “Well, hey,
that’s the new way we ought to go!”
Politics is a game where people follow what
they see as successes. The whole intense negative
advertising and the sharply partisan politics seemed
to work for awhile, but I think it’s reaching the end
of its string; and somebody’s going to come along
and move the other way. Then we’ll have a new era
of more bipartisanship, I think; I hope.
Monahan: Helen was the only Legislator to serve
during both 49-49 House ties. She had a good relationship
with Rep. Ellen Craswell, who was her
co-chair of the Revenue Committee in the 1979-80.
And again, in the 1999-2003 tie, Helen had a par-
ticularly good relationship with Rep. Barry Sehlin
and also Tom Huff, as co-chairs of Appropriations.
So, like you said, Helen has been the kind of person
who could reach out to others – across the lines,
and never worried about who got the credit.
Governor Evans: That made Helen Sommers, in my
view, an All-American Legislator!
Former Governor Dan Evans addressed a Feb. 24, 2007, joint session
of the Legislature. Gov. Chris Gregoire presented the state’s highest
honor, the ‘Medal of Merit’ to Evans, who served as a member of the
House (1957-65); three terms as governor(1965-1977); and six years in
the U.S. Senate (1983-1989).