Helen Sommers: An Oral History

pg. 140 Lynn Kessler
disturbed by that. But Helen was at the very top!
So she was highly regarded by both sides of the
aisle in both the House and the Senate as a formidable
legislator.
When Helen was first elected to the House in
1972, there were only 12 women in the House and
no women in the Senate. And, I would say, some
of the earlier women thought they had to be femfatales
or something to be successful. At that time,
women weren’t supposed to be in the Legislature
even though we had women legislators in Washington
as early as 1913. Helen never bought into that
stuff. In fact, Helen won her 36th District seat when
she beat Rep. Gladys Kirk in 1972 who early on,
appeared on the ballot as “Gladys (Mrs. Douglas
G.) Kirk.” Helen’s longtime friend, Georgette Valle,
was more of the charming woman, but, Helen was
just the opposite; Helen didn’t pay much attention
to that, even though she was extremely attractive.
In my third year as a legislator, 1995, our Caucus
was in the minority after the 1994 Republican
sweep. Helen had been the Appropriations chair for
just one year, and now she was the ranking member
with the Republican caucus in the majority. Rep.
Jean Silver was the new chair of Appropriations.
My 24th District had 19-percent unemployment. I
was trying very hard to get something in my district
for displaced timber workers. I had bargained with
Rep. Dale Forman, Republican Majority Leader
(who wrote the budget). He had said to me, “If you’ll
vote for this budget, I will get your bill to help the
displaced workers in your district in the budget.”
So, we have the vote on the budget on the floor,
and I vote “Yes.” Helen popped out of her seat,
came down and stood next to me and just screaming
at me! (laughter) “Why did you vote for that
budget?” I said, “Because he put something in there
for my workers, and I said I would, so I had to do
it; I had to get something for my displaced timber
workers!” Oh My Gosh, she scared the heck out
of me. (laughter) I stood my ground because it
was the right thing for my district. It didn’t make
any difference anyway. They had a lot of votes
and didn’t need me. They had more than enough
votes to pass it. But, boy, she was pretty ticked off
at me. (laughter)
I served with Helen on the Appropriations Committee
much of the time she was ‘ranking Democrat,’
co-chair and then chair for the final seven years
of her career. When I was Minority Leader and
then Majority Leader, and serving on Appropriations,
nearly every single night during session, the
vice chair and I would go to Helen’s office and we
would discuss the budget; and go through it line by
line. There was no dinner; we’d work right through
dinner hour. So Helen would open up this bottom
drawer in her desk that was always full of snacks
from Trader Joe’s, including Wasabi peas. So we
ate snacks every single night. Of course we never
had any social life. No dinners out, no receptions,
and certainly no wine. I did that with her for many,
many years, and we became very close friends and
good allies on the budget.
Now, I was there to represent the Democratic
Caucus; and Helen’s job was to write a budget.
So it was kind of this dynamic of me saying “the
caucus really needs this funded.” Or, I would tell
her what the Speaker needs, because I would bring
his needs in there, too.
But I think we ended up with a great working
relationship and a great rapport. The only time she
got kind of funny was when Hans Dunshee was vice
chair. He worked so well with Helen, and Hans is
so funny. Hans and I could ‘play-off’ one another
and joke around to maybe ease the tension. It was
so fun. But, sometimes Helen would get pretty
irate. (laughter) “Stop it; quit laughing! We got to
get back to business.” (laughter) As I said before,
Helen could have fun; but not during work.
I probably spent more hours with Helen than
any living human being here. I had those nine years,
every single night, Monday through Thursday, plus
Saturdays often 16 hour days, all the Appropriations
Committee meetings and those meetings at night.
She was just an amazing woman, and I was lucky to
work with her. Of course, my job was to get things
included in the budget, so I’d say: “OK. I have a
list of bills that we have to get out.” And she’d say
“We’re not going to get those out.” And, I’d say
“Well, Helen, this is what the Speaker wants out.”
I fought these battles for years. “In the end, we’re
going to get these bills out!” One time she said to
me, “You make him come in here and tell me that.”