Helen Sommers: An Oral History

pg. 20 “This District isn’t big enough for both of us!”
Eikenberry, who we believed supported the legislation,
voted ‘No!’ So, it didn’t pass, and that became
a big issue in the 1976 election. I won the election
with nearly 53 percent of the vote. It was the 1977
session that we finally passed a pension reform bill
that helped resolve the problems.
The seat Eikenberry gave up to challenge me was
won by Republican Rep . Joe
Taller. I got along pretty well
with Taller. Joe served two
terms in the 36 th District and
won his third, so the district
still had a Republican base,
but the number of Democrats
was growing.
Shortly after the 1981 elec-
Rep. Ken Eikenberry
tion, Joe was appointed as
Director of the Office of Financial Management in
newly-elected Gov . John Spellman’s administration.
In a November special election, the appointee to
Joe Taller’s vacant Republican seat was Rep . Jay
Lane. She was defeated by Rep . Seth Armstrong,
in a special election; Armstrong was the second
Democrat elected to represent the 36 th District.
Seth served from 1981-1989, and ever since, every
state representative in the 36 th District has been a
Democrat. Seth and I worked well together.
Of course, Eikenberry made a comeback. He was
later elected State Attorney General (1980-92) and he
served 12 years. He ran for Governor in 1992, but was
defeated by Congress Mike Lowry. Ken also served
for a time as the state Republican Party Chairman.
Monahan: During this same time period, the 36th District Senate seat had been strongly Republican
as well – four Republican senators served for nine
terms. But, in 1979 that, too, changed.
Your longtime Senate seatmate Senator Ray
Moore ran for the Senate in the 1978 election and he
won! What’s interesting is he had lost four different
elections to the Legislature and the City Council
in the 1940s through the 1970s. Moore had been a
Republican but turned a Democrat during the 1960s.
With the 1978 election approaching, Moore decided
to try for the Senate one more time. In his
Oral History book (printed in 1999), he related how
he went to a 36 th District Democratic Club’s meeting
for the first time. He said he was snubbed by
the Democratic leadership at the meeting. “They
were not happy with me because of my having been
a Republican! How could I possibly try to be a
Democrat?” they thought. “But, unknown to me,
it turned out I had one ally at the meeting that was
worth all of them, and that was Helen Sommers.”
He said he didn’t think he had a prayer of winning,
but you mentored him through, and he finally won.
The 36 th District Team – In 1992, Rep. Helen Sommers and
Sen. Ray Moore welcome Rep. Jeanne Kohl, who was appointed to
the House to fill the seat of Rep. Larry Phillips. Phillips won a seat on
the King County Council. Two years later, Kohl succeeded
Ray Moore in the Senate. Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles continues
to serve in the Washington State Senate.
Representative Sommers: Ray Moore always gave
me a good deal of credit. Now, he worked really
hard. He started as a Republican – and was involved
in that party – but I think the party became too
conservative for him. He was a good friend over
the years. We served together for 12 years, and I
believe we did many important things for our district.
He resigned from the Senate in August 1994,
and moved to Hawaii.
Monahan: Again, quoting Senator Ray Moore’s