Helen Sommers: An Oral History

pg. 142 Lynn Kessler
have an egg, you don’t have an abortion!” But, the
bill failed! I remember Helen putting so much into
that and taking the lead. She had all the statistics
and how it would work for both sides.
So it was pretty hard for her. Helen had been
once married early in her life, but she never had
children of her own. She was always so happy to
be around children. She just adored Sen. Mark
Doumit’s children. Mark spent a lot of time with
Helen. He was on the Appropriations Committee
when he was in the House and served as vice
chair in the Senate Ways & Means Committee, so
they had a good working relationship. Helen had
pictures of the Doumit children in her office. She
really enjoyed being around children.
When my first grandson was born, I took care
of him every Monday during the interim. He was
three months old when I took him to a meeting
and Helen was all over him; talking to him and so
caring. She was very into reading to kids. She was a
real early leader in the issue of baby brain development.
She had books, and encouraged reading to
newborn babies to help in brain development. She
even brought in a professional from the University
of Washington to have her testify on early brain
development in, of all places, the Appropriations
Committee! It seemed pretty weird, but she was so
into it and wanted to share the concept.
Another of Helen great interests was art. She
traveled the world to see it, and she had her own
very nice art collection. Art was a really big thing
to her. She was very involved in the Burke Museum
and she would on occasion invite some of us to go
to the Burke with her. After the tour, some of the
archivists would take us down into the basement
of the Burke which is an amazing place, and then
she’d hit us up for money! (laughter) Travel, art
and archeology were three of her greatest interests.
People really didn’t know how accomplished
Helen is. You couldn’t pinpoint her. She wasn’t a
big salesperson of herself. You should have seen
the jaws drop on the day she spoke Spanish on the
floor! She’d done it on several occasions, including
farm-worker housing once on the floor.
Probably the most difficult election Helen ever
had in her 36 year career was in 2004 when she was
challenged in the primary. The Service Employees
International Union (SEIU) went after Helen.
The union supported Alice Woldt, a more liberal
Democrat who challenged Sommers. Woldt spent
more than $275,000, most of which came from
SEIU. Helen spent about $180,000. She worked
very hard raising money, doorbelling and she really
worked hard for that win. When all was done, and
Helen beat Woldt by 52-percent to 48-percent in the
primary, instead of going off and resting in some
spa, she went to Jordan and some other country
rife with danger.
Helen could have gone to the Senate, had she
wished, but she was happy in the House, where she
was chair of Appropriations. As an economist, she
was very interested in budget issues and legislative
policy. Helen always had a saying: “The Republicans
are the opposition; the Senate is the enemy.” I don’t
know if she could have gone to the Senate! (laughter)
When Helen retired after the 2008 session ended,
and the 2009 session began, she was one of two people
we lost who, I would say, kind of left our caucus a
little bit rudderless. One was Helen’s departure, which
created a contentious replacement bid for the Ways
& Means Chair. Whenever you have a contentious
race, and somebody wins and somebody loses, there’s
that anxiety still out there. And, there was no Helen
there who could say “Let’s move on; let’s get over it.”
And the other person we lost in the 2008 session
was Bill Grant, who also had been a leader here
20 years, and had served as Democratic Caucus
chair. Bill’s absence was strongly felt. Bill was a
wonderful guy who didn’t talk a lot – but when he
talked, EVERYBODY listened! Kind of like an
E.F. Hutton! (laughter) I think those two losses for
us – sadly Bill Grant’s sudden death, and Helen’s
decision not to run again – those two events really
affected us! You could feel that in our caucus, I
think, that we definitely lost two very opposite
types of leaders, but very definite strong leaders.
That coupled with the sort of contentious race for
the Ways & Means chair, always brings winners
and losers. And you have your followers in each
camp; but there’s no real voice to kind of bring it
all together to say, “we’ve got to move on!”
Everyone knows that Helen was really a strong