Helen Sommers: An Oral History

Chapter 27
Helen’s final day of her
legislature career!
House of Representatives honors Rep . Helen Sommers
for her 36 years of service to the State of Washington
– House Resolution 4717 – March 14, 2008
Majority Leader Lynn Kessler: Mr. Speaker, I move
adoption of House Resolution 4717, honoring Representative
Helen Sommers.
Speaker Chopp: It’s been moved and seconded on
adoption of House Resolution 4717! Remarks.
Rep . Lynn Kessler (D-24th District): “Well, there’s
some good news and the bad
news. The good news is, Helen,
you’ve been with us for 36
years, and you’ve been such
a wonderful leader in our
state and in the Legislature!
The bad news is we’re going
to tell you how much we love
you! (laughter)
And, we may even tell you
Rep. Lynn Kessler
things that you haven’t heard
for a long time. I know you sat over there in the Senate
this morning and on the podium for 90 minutes
listening to how much they love and admire you
over there. I hope you will give us at least some time
to let you know how we feel about you.
I want to say that when I came to the House
in 1993, you scared the hell out of me! (laughter)
Well, I was frightened of you. (laughter) In 1995,
we were in the ‘super minority’ and there was a
large Republican majority, and I was trying to do
due-diligence for my district. I got some funding
in the budget for my timber communities. The vote
came up for the budget, and all the Democrats voted
red (NO), except me! I was a green (YES). And, I
heard you coming down the aisle, saying: “What
in the world are you doing?” And, I said, ‘Oh my
god, I don’t know! I was just voting for my timber
communities.”
Well, since that day, Helen, I will tell you that
I no longer fear you, I respect you! And, I have
enjoyed getting to know you both as a leader, as
Appropriations Chair, as a Legislator, but also as
a person!
Helen and I share a great love of art; she travels
like nobody I’ve ever known. One quality that I
don’t know if you all had an opportunity to be
aware of, is when you go out with Helen, you don’t
talk about legislative things! You talk about anything
but legislative things, because she has such
a wide variety of interests; and this Legislature is
just one of them! The fact that you’ve been here for
36 years tells me you were really very interested in
this place. I do want you to know, without getting
‘syrupy,’ that I do think you’re one of the strongest
women I’ve ever known! I can see why the women
in this Legislature have roles of leadership because
we followed in your footsteps. We followed as you
as paved the way for women to have strong roles
in the Legislature!
Thank you Helen for all that you do; Thank You
for being a good friend; and Thank You for those
Wasabi peas and banana chips from Trader Joe’s.
They were sort of good!” (laughter)
(editor’s note: Rep. Lynn Kessler retires in 2011
after nine terms in the House from the 24 th District)”
Rep . Richard DeBolt (R-20th District) Republican
Minority Leader: “It’s a pleasure
that I rise to celebrate
one of the most storied careers
in Olympia. I remember when
I was in a talk show after I
had become leader, and Dave
Ammons said to me: “Richard,
you don’t seem to fear much!”
I told him, “only one thing
scares me – Helen Sommers!”
(laughter)
Rep. Richard DeBolt
I don’t know if it was the looks I got sitting in the
corner in the Appropriations Committee trying to
do my job and I would get the “Richard, please!”
look as I was trying to make my points through
the day, but I will tell you it was always with great
respect. We would do what we could to move the