Steve Fuhrman
Seventh District Rep. Steve Fuhrman chairs the House Natural Resources Committeee. He received a bachelor’s degree in range management from Washington State University in 1969. Married with three children, he owns a feed store in Kettle Falls. His stepdaughter, Carolyn Sapp, was Miss America in 1992.
Steve Fuhrman is a devout Christian who says a vision called him to run for the Legislature.
“One evening as I was lying in bed, half awake, mulling over our nation’s insidious abortion policies, I had a dream and saw myself standing in our state Capitol as a Christian legislator,” Fuhrman wrote in a religious publication called Voice.
“I had no prior political involvement but I sensed God was speaking to me. He had been molding and making me into a vessel He could use. With God’s help I was going to be that Christian legislator!
“I purchased my first threepiece suit and began my campaign.”
Fuhrman, 48, has remained a staunch foe of abortion throughout his political career. He is committed to sponsoring a bill this session to require parental notification or consent and informed consent for abortions.
He maintains a kind of shrine to life in his office: a corner on a marble windowsill decorated with a lamp, a rose from the annual anti-abortion march on Olympia, a Bible, and a picture of Jesus with a fetus in his hand, and blood on his robe.
A nearby plaque says, “Jesus is the answer.”
But because the abortion issue is so sensitive, Fuhrman said he wouldn’t outlaw it with anything less than a three-quarters majority vote of the people.
As chairman of the House Natural Resources Committeee, Fuhrman said he will restrict the role of government. “If it increases fines, taxes, or the size and scope of government I’m not even bringing it up in my committee for a vote.”
He believes government has overtaken responsibilities, such as welfare, that are better handled by the church and family.
“That’s the core of the problem. We have redefined the family over the years. What it should be is what it was 50 years ago: mother, father, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.”
His demeanor is serious and focused, but Fuhrman has a sense of humor. Take the box of Road Kill Cuisine on his bookshelf. It’s a memento from Fuhrman’s failed proposal last year to allow highway departments to collect road kill and feed it to prisoners.
He says he’ll reintroduce the bill this year, minus the culinary angle. “I just want the highway departments to scrape it up. It stinks.”
MEMO: Also see the story under the headline “Republicans prepare to turn plans into laws.”