State Republicans Say Their Contract Was A Hit
On that sunny September day on the state Capitol steps, giddy Republican candidates were in a party mood as they signed a giant mockup of the newly minted “Republican Contract with Washington State.”
A week before Newt Gingrich and his “Contract with America” made the evening news, Washington Republicans had their own version, and were to ride it to success in November.
But what started out as a 1994 campaign gimmick was put to good use in 1995, both framing the debate in Olympia and keeping the troops focused and on-point, GOP party and legislative leaders said.
“It was wildly successful for us, far beyond anything I anticipated,” says House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee.
The GOP had control of only one house during the 137-day session, while Democrats held the governor’s mansion and a shaky oneseat majority in the Senate.
But Republicans used their House foothold well, along with the contract initially ridiculed by the Democrats and met with skepticism or indifference by the media.
Cobbled together by state Republican Chairman Ken Eikenberry and leaders in the House and Senate Republican caucuses, the pact vowed nothing less than “balance and a new direction” for Washington after years of Democratic agendas.
“We believe that Washingtonians know their state is on the wrong track and most of our citizens are ready for new leadership,” the preamble said, just below the Ye Olde English script proclaiming the “contract” with voters. “We also believe people are tired of politics and promises as usual,” the document said.
The seven-point manifesto was rather conventional, though the contract format was not. Republicans essentially took a consensus list straight out of polling data, citing issues the voters and both parties were concerned about - crime, taxes, education, health care, welfare and government regulation.
The GOP got most of what it went after. Every bill associated with the contract sailed out of the House in less than 100 days and nearly every one passed in some form or another in the compliant Senate.
The overarching theme, of downsizing the scope and reach of government, played out in the writing of the state budget.
The only major “contract” defeat was an inside job. House Republicans negotiated the best deal they could on welfare reform, but in the end decided it wasn’t good enough. They said they’d rather try again next year than dissipate the reform energy by taking a more incremental approach.
Senate Democrats were rather disdainful, both of the contract idea and Republican efforts to claim some of the Democrats’ own issues.
Legislative agendas and campaign promises are nothing new, said Senate Majority Leader Marcus Gaspard, D-Puyallup.
But instead of proposing a sweeping agenda of their own or actively fighting the GOP world view, the Senate majority largely tried to pretend the contract wasn’t there, or at least to pooh-pooh its significance.
Gaspard said it fell to his caucus to moderate the Republican proposals - and moderate they did, from tax cuts to regulatory reform.
What emerged was a kind of Contract Lite - enough to allow Republicans to declare utter victory and to begin talking about “Contract: The Sequel.”
Democrats took solace of the it-couldhave-been-worse variety.
Says Eikenberry, “There was certainly a sharp change in direction, and we didn’t have the governor’s office and only one chamber. I’m not saying we turned it around, but that is a change in direction that is very remarkable.”
The magic, says Senate Minority Leader Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, was that Republicans stumbled across a way to bridge the public animosity toward politicians who are all form and no substance.
By drawing up a checklist during the campaign and sticking to it during the session, the GOP enabled voters to directly link promises with follow-through, he said.
xxxx GOP receives passing grades on most of Contract OLYMPIA
Here is a report card on the “Contract with Washington State”: CRIME Republicans promised passage of the “Hard Time for Armed Crime” initiative drafted by a citizen group. They delivered. Still to come, though, is a juvenile-justice bill, which has a large pricetag. TAX CUTS Republicans consider this success their finest hour. During the campaign, GOP leaders talked about a $300 million tax cut. What the Legislature delivered was $501 million, though Gov. Mike Lowry may veto part of the package. House Republicans at first tried to chop the budget deeply enough to allow a $738 million tax-relief package while Senate Democrats countered with $250 million. The final agreement benefits mostly business and property owners. PROPERTY TAXES Lawmakers approved modest relief, but concede it is largely symbolic: about $17 a year on a $100,000 home. The breaks were slightly expanded for senior citizens. A propertytax study was approved, but there was no legislation to make good on the contract’s promise of “property tax reform that would prevent older Washingtonians from being taxed out of their homes and help young families keep pace by eliminating the tremendous surges in property taxes from year to year.” EDUCATION The vow to “redirect education funding to the local classroom and reduce the costs of the education bureaucracy and administration” produced a 4.9 percent cut in administration salaries, a 7.5 percent cut in the state superintendent’s office and a study on overhead. HEALTH REFORM Joined by unlikely Democratic allies, including Gov. Mike Lowry, Republicans rolled back most of the 1993 universal health-care law that President Clinton had called a model for the nation. REGULATORY REFORM Lawmakers scaled back the original sweeping House bill and approved a milder version that reins in agency regulators. Also approved was a bill streamlining and coordinating state environmental and growthmanagement laws. WELFARE REFORM Both houses agreed on a work requirement, shorter stays on the welfare rolls, a ban on cash grants for unwed teen mothers and other reforms. But in the end, a difference over time limits caused the House to kill the bill and wait for next year. - Associated Press