Mielke’s Lobby Leap ‘A Problem’
Olympia’s revolving door between lobbyists and lawmakers needs brakes, some lawmakers have decided, and they are introducing legislation to apply them.
The issue hit home this month when former Rep. Todd Mielke quit halfway through his term to take a job as a lobbyist for Johnson and Johnson.
The Spokane Republican left his legislative post on a Sunday and went to work for the corporate giant the next day.
“It’s a problem,” said Sen. Kevin Quigley, D-Lake Stevens, who is introducing a bill to require a cooling-off period between service in the Legislature or state bureaucracy and lobbying.
Members of Congress are required to wait one year between casting votes and casting nets for lobbying jobs.
Not state lawmakers: They are only prohibited from taking jobs they specifically created through contracts or other legislation enacted while in office.
Details are still in the works, but Quigley said the cooling-off period should be substantial, maybe as long as five years. “I think the congressional limit is low.”
Bucks don’t get votes
Voters proved once again this week that while special interests can buy their way onto the ballot, they can’t buy the election.
Paying people to bag the necessary names to qualify an initiative for the ballot or the Legislature has become routine in Washington.
So far, special interests that bankroll the signature drives haven’t gotten much for the more than $1 million bucks they typically then put into their campaigns.
Initiative 602, the tax rollback initiative bankrolled by business in 1993, went down in flames.
This year’s crop of budget-busting special interest initiatives included Referendum 48, the property rights measure, and I-651, which would have legalized slot machines on Indian lands.
Backers of Referendum 48 outspent opponents nearly 2 to 1, and raised nearly $1.5 million from building, timber, and real estate interests. Yet they lost, big time.
The Indian Gambling Initiative was awash in cash, with opponents outspent 3 to 1. But I-651 was drilled into the ground.
Lowry supporters fade
Gov. Mike Lowry suffered another vote of no-confidence this week.
When Sen. Nita Rinehart, D-Seattle, declared she will run for governor in 1996, 10 Democratic state senators immediately threw their support to her.
Some of Rinehart’s supporters had been among Lowry’s most avid backers in the Senate.
It’s not a good sign for the state’s Democratic standard bearer. But Lowry, in typically upbeat fashion, says he invites anyone who wants to run to go for it.
Shades of “Go ahead, make my day,” here.
Meanwhile, Lowry says he won’t announce whether he’s running until next year.
Rinehart said she decided this week to enter the race in part because she has received such whole-hearted encouragement from other Democrats - another bad sign for Lowry.
She provides an alternative for voters who feel squeamish about Lowry’s sexual harassment scandal, questions about a drinking problem and his apparent immunity from speeding tickets. Not to mention tax increases and a widely unpopular health care reform law Lowry helped push through only to preside over its gutting repeal the next year.
The governor squelched the sexual harassment scandal only by forking over $97,500 from his own pocket to block the possibility of a lawsuit by a former press aide.
If Lowry runs again, the issue is bound to be rehashed, reinvestigated and rerun by the press. Not an appetizing prospect for any candidate.
Rinehart is free of any such baggage.
She is chairwoman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, where she has made education funding her top priority. Education will be a central theme of her campaign.
While Rinehart has said it’s time for Lowry to bow out gracefully, she has made it clear she won’t make him an issue in her campaign. “There’s no need to do that. This will be a positive campaign.”
Maybe for her. But the governor can count on a rough ride.
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