Helen Sommers: An Oral History

Dean Foster
Former Chief Clerk dean Foster
Interview for Rep. Helen Sommers
Oral History
Dan Monahan: Dean, thank you for agreeing to
this interview for the Oral
History of Representative
Helen Sommers. Helen
served 36 years in the House
of Representatives from
1973-2009, and you served
in the House as Chief Clerk
for many years of her term.
When did you first come to
t h e Ho u s e o f
Dean Foster
Representatives?
Chief Clerk Dean Foster: Well, I first came to work
for the Legislature in 1959 when I was still in high
school. In these early years, the Legislature was
very different than it is today. Members didn’t
have offices; they often worked from their desk on
the floor of the chamber and they had a telephone
there. The members did not have administrative
assistants and there wasn’t a year-round staff then.
Sessions were held every other year, and all the
work done by members and staff was done in the
Legislative Building.
Twenty-seven of the members elected to the
House of Representatives in 1959 had no previous
legislative experience! So, they showed up here on
the Sunday before they’re sworn in on Monday; and
maybe a week later they were told what committees
they would serve on.
There were still forty-nine legislative districts
in 1959, but there were 99 members of the House
of Representatives! The 49 Districts all had one
Senator, but the districts also had either one, two
or three House members, depending on the district.
That was done to try to balance the district size
with population. But, as you know, in 1972 the
federal courts would change the number from 99
pg. 163
members, to the current 98 members and redistricting
created one Senator and two House members
for every district.
Monahan: When you came to the House, Rep. John
L. O’Brien was the Speaker of the House. O’Brien
served more than 50 years in the House, having
first been appointed to the House in 1939. He
served in the House until 1993. He was Speaker of
the House from 1955 until 1963 and then served as
Speaker Pro Tempore from 1973-1993. Talk about
what happened in 1963.
Chief Clerk Foster: In the 1961 session, when
O’Brien was Speaker, the Democrats had a strong
59-40 majority. But in 1963, Democrats had lost
eight seats and only held a 51-48 majority. The
plan was to elect John O’Brien to again serve as
Speaker. But, because of the consequences of the
controversy in the previous legislative session over
private power, a number of conservative ‘private
power’ Democrat representatives were approached
by the Republicans (whose motive was redistricting)
and formed a coalition with the 48 Republicans to
elect Spokane Democrat Rep. Bill Day Speaker of
the House! It was a very contentious session.
Monahan: In 1973, the Democrats regained control
of the House by a 57-41 majority after six years
of Republican control. Rep. Leonard Sawyer was
elected Speaker of the House and you were elected
Chief Clerk. This was the first year that there were
98 House members, two from each of the 49 districts.
Talk about the new Democratic majority and the
leadership of Speaker Sawyer.
Chief Clerk Foster: Sawyer was really focused on
leading the Legislature to make it an equal branch
of government. The reality was that the Legislature
only had the information that the executive branch
would provide them!
I wouldn’t suggest it was the wrong thing for
Dan Evans’ people to do, but they had all the financial
data and professionals to work it all out.
The Legislature didn’t have any financial data, and
because they were only in Olympia for a few months,
they didn’t really have a lot of time or professional
staff to study fiscal data.
Sawyer wanted the Legislature to be involved,