Legislators Join Forces In Caucus Conservatives Band Together ‘To Get Rid Of Programs That Don’t Work’

A baker’s dozen of Republican conservatives in the Legislature have formed their own caucus to push an agenda they believe GOP voters want but haven’t received.

“We want to give people hope,” state Sen. Val Stevens, R-Snohomish County, said Tuesday at a Spokane press conference. “Many Republicans have felt they have not gotten what they asked for.”

The Conservative Caucus will dedicate itself to “making government responsible to the individual,” Stevens said. “We want to get rid of the programs that don’t work.”

Asked which programs those might be, Stevens and state Rep. John Koster, R-Monroe, targeted the state’s mega-agency, the Department of Social and Health Services.

They also would like to enact major revisions to the Growth Management Act, outlaw so-called partial birth abortions and approve Initiative 200, a proposal that would do away with affirmative action programs in the state.

They also hope to cut the influence of special interest groups.

“Special interests in general need to go away,” said Koster.

But, according to reports on file with the state Public Disclosure Commission, Koster received more than $16,000 for his 1996 re-election campaign from special interests ranging from state public employees to restaurant owners to the trucking industry.

Stevens collected more than $13,000 from various political action groups representing such diverse interests as the medical industry, engineers and bankers, the Public Disclosure Commission reported.

Koster said he listens to lobbyists but doesn’t give them more access or time than anyone else.

The Conservative Caucus has a total of 13 dues-paying members in the two houses, although neither Stevens nor Koster could give an exact breakdown between the House and the Senate.

“It’s a moving target,” Koster said.

The group is bipartisan, although all current members are Republicans.

, DataTimes