Helen Sommers: An Oral History

Chapter 14
Gov. Lowry and Speaker Ebersole
Monahan: In 1993, the House Democrats had a 65-33
majority, the largest majority either party had held
in the House since 1959. The Senate Democrats held
a 28-21 majority. Rep . Brian Ebersole (D-Tacoma)
was elected Speaker of the House, after Joe King
stepped down.
The newly elected Governor Mike Lowry had been
a Democratic Congressman from Washington’s 7 th
District. So his Congressional district included your
36 th Legislative District. How was it with Speaker
Ebersole and Governor Lowry and such a strong
House Democratic majority? What were some of
the accomplishments during his term?
Gov. Mike Lowry signs a bill sponsored by
Rep. Helen Sommers in 1993
Representative Sommers: When Brian Ebersole was
elected Speaker, I was elected Chair of the House
Democratic Caucus. The caucus chair works with
the Speaker, the Senate majority leader and the
Governor to set priorities, develop strategies, and
schedule legislation. So I worked closely with Brian
and with Gov. Lowry to coordinate and reconcile
differences in legislation through the session. Caucus
chair was a new opportunity for me and a very
challenging one.
Mike Lowry was a more liberal Democrat and a very
activist governor. With the new
governor and strong Democrat
majorities in both bodies, the
1993 session was pretty intense
and fast-paced, I remember. I
would say it was a very productive
session. Reform and efficiency
were the themes of the
session. We passed health care
Speaker of the House
Brian Ebersole
1993-95
reform legislation and education
reform.
But, the big concern in the
’93 session was again the falling revenues in the
state, so we had to deal with that and a combination
of budget cuts and raising taxes to get us through
another difficult economic forecast .
Of course, Ebersole, served just one term as
Speaker (1993-95), when he chose to run for mayor
of Tacoma instead of re-election to the House, and
he was elected mayor of Tacoma.
(editor’s note: Mike Lowry started his career in
government when he worked briefly for the Washington
state Senate. in 1975, he was elected to the King
county council, and in 1978, Mike was elected to the
U.S. House of Representatives from Washington’s
7 th congressional District. He served in congress
for five terms (1978-89). in 1992, Lowry was elected
Washington’s 20 th Governor. He served one term.
Brian ebersole was first elected to the Washington
state House of Representatives in 1983 from Pierce
county’s 29 th District. He served for 10 years when he
was elected Speaker of the House in 1993. He served
one term as Speaker and then won election as tacoma
Mayor (1996-2000). He left the mayor post in 2000,
when he was named President of Bates technical college
in 2000. He served four years at Bates. )