Helen Sommers: An Oral History

pg. 158 Barry Sehlin
was, as I said, a neophyte. So, I considered myself
to be very fortunate – particularly on the Capital
Budget Committee, where Helen also served. Just
watching the way Helen worked, not only with her
caucus and their issues, but with the entire legislative
process, was a valuable learning experience.
Helen had been a leader in the Legislature for more
than 20 years! When I came on, she was Chair of
the House Democratic Caucus, but she still was
very helpful to me.
Gary Locke was chair of the House Appropriations
Committee when I came on for my first session
in 1993. I was learning a lot about the process and
especially how to run a committee in Appropriations.
Let me tell you my story about Gary Locke.
Toward the end of each session, there was always a
routine hearing to consider the requests of citizens
who have claims against state government. We were
moving through the process of hearing people’s
stories about claims, and then the committee would
determine if they were legitimate claims or not.
One lady, who was the widow of a state employee,
came to testify before the Appropriations Committee
about her claim. She was having a problem
with the state getting her late husband’s pension.
Of course, normally, the person will testify before
the committee; we would consider their testimony;
and then vote on whether they were entitled or not.
This lady, who was a recent widow, started to explain
but she completely broke down and couldn’t
proceed. Locke broke procedure for a moment.
He didn’t embarrass her, he simply allowed her
to not give her testimony. That’s the way to treat
people. Without her testimony, we on the committee
thought it was valid and it was right to vote in
her favor. Gary was such a gentleman.
Locke served as the chair of the Appropriations
Committee from 1989 to 1993 session. In the
November ’93 election, Locke was elected King
County Executive. He resigned from the House on
January 3, 1994, and, Helen Sommers was named
chair of Appropriations, but she only held that post
for one year, because the 1994 election was a very
strong year for Republicans. Our caucus went from
a 33-seat minority, with 65 Democrats in 1993, to
a 60-member Majority with 38 Democrats in 1994!
Rep. Clyde Ballard (R-12 th District) was elected
Speaker of the House.
I had only been in the Legislature for two years
when we won a big majority. My strongest recollection
in the Republican Caucus was the mood
was jubilant; a very positive atmosphere. Everyone
was expecting to be able to make some changes in
policy direction that the Republican caucus was
anxious to see happen. It was the first Republican
majority in the House since 1983.
A few observations: the 1992 election was clearly
a huge sweep of Democrats. The Democrats had a
65-33 majority in the House, Mike Lowry was elected
governor. If you had a D after your name in 1992,
you were elected. Then in 1994, the reverse happened.
Looking back on those elections, it seems to me
that those sweeps were not particularly healthy in
a way. There were a few people elected in both of
those times who maybe, under normal circumstances,
wouldn’t have been elected. That did make for some
difficult times in the Legislature, I think. Having
each caucus – whether it was in the Democratic
sweep or the Republican sweep – a few members
who really attempted to drive policy in directions
that the majority of the caucus didn’t agree with.
They were very vocal and very argumentative. They
made the process a little more difficult at times.
With a 62-member majority, we now had 29 newly
elected members in our caucus. Since I had been
elected in 1992, I was named the Capital Budget
Committee Chair, and I continued to serve on the
Appropriations Committee. So, Helen Sommers went
from one term as Appropriations Committee Chair
in 1994, to ranking Democrat on the committee.
I enjoyed the Capital Budget Committee more
than any in my career. And, whether Helen was on
the committee or not, she was particularly valuable
to me as the chair of the committee, because if I
ever needed to know the history of something – a
project or a piece of legislation – Helen always knew
the history: where it came from; who had originally
proposed it and why, and the politics of everything.
And she was not reticent to share any information
she had with me. I always appreciated that. I
thought it was a particularly valuable contribution
to the entire Legislature to have her there with her