Helen Sommers: An Oral History

Wayne Ehlers
speaker of the house
wayne ehlers
Interview for Rep. Helen Sommers
Oral History
Speaker of the House Wayne Ehlers Bio: Rep. Wayne
Ehlers (D-2nd District) was
elected to the House in 1973,
the same year Rep. Helen
Sommers was first elected. He
served for 10 years in the House,
serving as chairman of the
State Government Committee
(1977-80), as House Democratic
(Minority) Leader 1980-82,
and he was elected Speaker of
Wayne Ehlers
the House in 1983, when Democrats
regained the majority.
He served two terms as Speaker (1983-1987).
Monahan: Speaker Ehlers, you and Helen Sommers
both came to the House after the 1972 election,
you and Helen were two of the 18 new Democrats
elected, giving the Democrats a 57-41 majority after
six years of Republican majority. That ’72 election
also brought to Olympia 13 new Republicans, so
almost one-third of the House were brand new
members. The newly elected Speaker of the House
was Leonard Sawyer (D-Puyallup).
Speaker Ehlers: Yes, our caucus grew by 18 seats
following the ’72 election. Back then, the freshmen
would sit in the very back of the chamber, that actually
started in 1971 before we got there. So, we were
the “back-benchers!” The Majority Leader on the
floor would sit in the very front row and he’d give
the “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” to instruct the
back-benchers how to vote on whatever bill was up
for a vote on the floor. That didn’t happen for very
long though because we told leadership if they did
that, they’d probably get a different hand gesture
from the freshmen! (laughter)
pg. 109
In that first session for the new freshmen (1973)
with the Democrats back in the majority, a group
of us freshmen pretty much hung together: Barney
Goltz, Helen Sommers, I, and a few others sat in a
little cluster on the floor in the back.
In the early days of the 1973 session, one problem
we faced was Leadership wouldn’t give the
rest of us a list of the changes the Senate made to
bills that were coming back from the Senate with
amendments. And, they would never call a caucus
on what the Senate amendments were, or what they
involved. The Speaker would just bang, bang, bang
go through them, and we would finally get a list,
but we wouldn’t have a discussion.
So many of the back-benchers would take turns
speaking on the floor to extend discussion and
get information on the changes to the bills by the
Senate. Helen was one of the leaders on that. We
would go down the bill books and say “it’s an OK
amendment from the Senate,” and we’d sit and talk
among ourselves. Even then, in that first session,
Helen took some real leadership with Barney Goltz
and some of the rest of us. From very early, on we
saw Helen was going to be a star.
Monahan: And she continued on for an amazing 36
year career in the Legislature, so your perception
then was right on.
Speaker Ehlers: Well, whenever someone would
raise an issue about ‘term limitations,’ I would
use Helen Sommers and Reps. Irv Newhouse and
Jeanette Hayner, both Republicans from eastern
Washington, who came in with us in the same class
of 1973. Maybe for some members two years was
two years too long! But when you consider people
like Helen Sommers, Irv Newhouse and Jeanette
Hayner, they got better and better as time went
on. They served as some of the best examples on
why term limits in the Legislature were not a good
thing. I’m pleased that Washington has never gone
to term limits.
Monahan: You and Helen were both on the state
government committee, I recall.
Speaker Ehlers: Yes, in our freshman year, Helen
and I were both members of the Ways & Means
Committee. She was on the Revenue side and I was