Helen Sommers: An Oral History

pg. 30 Speaker Sawyer Steps Down
port me – and those who think otherwise – please
all of you, let’s unite together and get on with the
business of the House. I will work for that and I
hope you will too. I wish to thank you very much
for your past courtesies.” (Applause)
Sawyer was followed to the rostrum by House
Majority Leader, Rep . Robert Charette (D-Aberdeen),
who submitted his resignation as majority leader
because he said he was appointed by the Speaker.
Charette also addressed the floor and added to the
call for unity and calmness:
Majority Leader Charette: “I urge that we start from
now by keeping our voices a
little more quiet and be a little
more concerned about the
business we were sent here to
transact. OK? The fight’s over!
Now let’s get on with the business
of the state, that’s the
reason we’re here.
“We were not sent here to do
Rep. Robert Charette
these things to each other. If
we are and anyone thinks we are, hell, it’s over now!
Let’s get down to the business of the state of Washington.
And let’s do it calmly–and not as individuals,
but as a group. That doesn’t mean we can’t have our
differences–we will always have our differences.
“Maybe we won’t solve the problems, but let’s at
least address ourselves to the problems in a calm
manner and in what will be within this House, I’m
sure, an intelligent manner.”
Representative Sommers: After Sawyer and Charette
stepped down, there weren’t enough votes to
elect either of the two contenders to be Speaker
of the House. Neither Rep . Joe Haussler nor Rep .
Al Bauer could muster the 50 votes needed to be
elected Speaker. The Republicans just walked away
from it all, they weren’t going to be involved. So
John O’Brien continued to preside as Speaker Pro
Tempore for the remainder of session.
Monahan: Rep . John McKibbin (Vancouver) said
O’Brien clearly knew how to run the House. “He
was a dependable quantity, and we knew we could
count on him to be fair.”
Were you comfortable with the outcome of forc-
ing Leonard Sawyer out as Speaker of the House?
Representative Sommers: I don’t know if the word
is comfortable, I think we were feeling that we had
accomplished a lot. You know the Press was very
sour on Sawyer with the wheeling and dealing image
that was hurting all Democrats in the House. So,
there was a lot of anger in the Democratic Caucus,
especially among the newer members who felt they
weren’t allowed by leadership to have a voice in
the process.
Later, Sawyer announced to the media that he
would not run again for his 25 th District House seat,
and he then departed on a business trip to Papua,
New Guinea, and Sawyer was gone. O’Brien, the
Speaker Pro Tem, continued to preside.
O’Brien was the parliamentarian, the man who
knew the rules and who kept us to those rules, so
despite the fact that Speaker Sawyer stepped down,
we were still able to continue through the session.
In my 1976 Newsletter to my 36 th District constituents,
I wrote:
“This session began with a revolt among the
House Democrats which ended in forcing the resignation
of the Speaker, who had previously been
considered a strongman with the power to ignore
the criticism of a few dissidents. This step may well
have greater long-range effect on the Legislature,
and hence the state, than any new law.
“Decision-making and responsibility (and thus
power) have been spread from a single power-broker
to several leaders and there is greater participation
by more caucus members – a healthier and more
democratic structure.”