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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Nine legislators missed over 100 votes

Richard Roesler Staff writer

OLYMPIA – Nine state lawmakers – including a couple of local ones – missed more than 100 votes in the state Senate and House of Representatives this year.

Washingtonvotes.org, a political Web site run by the conservative Washington Policy Center, has compiled a list of all the missed votes in this year’s 15-week session, which ended Sunday.

Web site director John Barnes cautioned that there are often good reasons for missed votes. Negotiations can keep legislative leaders tied up. So can family or medical problems.

The senator with the most missed votes – Sen. Bob Oke, R-Port Orchard – has been battling a rare form of cancer for months.

The tally makes no distinction between excused and unexcused absences.

“Legislators are human, too,” Barnes said. “People shouldn’t jump to conclusions or assume bad faith. But if a legislator demonstrates a consistent pattern of missing votes for months on end, citizens have a right to ask why.”

The missed-vote counts are higher in the Senate, where tradition requires that all votes be done by calling the roll.

In the House, where voting is done by simply pressing a red or green button, it’s common for lawmakers’ seatmates to vote on their behalf when they’re gone.

It’s not uncommon in the House to see a single lawmaker scurrying from one desk to the next to vote for three people.

Four local lawmakers had perfect voting records this year: Reps. Timm Ormsby and Alex Wood, both Spokane Democrats; and Reps. David Buri, R-Colfax, and Joel Kretz, R-Wauconda.

After Oke – who missed 309 votes – the next highest number of missed votes was by Sen. Alex Deccio, R-Yakima.

Deccio, who missed 247 votes, said Tuesday that he became ill four times this session, and he offered to turn over the names of his doctors for verification.

“There could be a couple of hundred votes in four days, when you go into the evening,” Deccio said. “So it sounds a lot worse than it really is.”

Here’s how local lawmakers stacked up:

“ Sen. Bob McCaslin, R-Spokane Valley: Missed 177 votes, third highest in the Senate. He said that he’s had back and other medical problems this year and that his absence didn’t affect the passage or failure of any of major legislation.

Republicans are narrowly outnumbered by Democrats in the Senate.

“With the Democrats in charge, they (Republican leaders) didn’t need McCaslin that much,” he said. “I told leadership, ‘If you need a yes, call me.’ “

“ Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, missed 141 votes. Brown said she was frequently off the floor to fine-tune bills with House and other leaders.

“Yeah, I missed a lot of votes the last week, because I was meeting in my office with people, working out the details of several pieces of legislation,” she said.

“ Rep. Bob Sump, R-Republic: Missed 77 votes.

“ Rep. Lynn Schindler, R-Otis Orchards: Missed 55 votes.

“ Rep. Larry Crouse, R-Spokane: Missed 25 votes.

“ Rep. Don Cox, R-Colfax: Missed 18 votes.

“ Sen. John Ahern, R-Spokane: Missed 15 votes.

“ Sen. Brad Benson, R-Spokane: Missed 7 votes, although a substitute filled in for two days while Benson had Air National Guard duty.

“ Sen. Bob Morton, R-Orient: Missed 7 votes.

“ Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville: Missed 5 votes.

“ Rep. John Serben, R-Spokane: Missed 2 votes.