Back on top, Democrats settle scores

OLYMPIA – So this is what Blue State politics looks like.

Democrats, merrily, messily in charge of Olympia after the 2004 elections, rushed toward adjournment of their 15-week legislative session this weekend.

They’ve utterly dominated the show.

It has amounted to payback time for many of the Democratic constituencies that had to weather a decade of divided or downright Republican control, budget deficits and tax holddowns.

But as the final deals were being cut on labor and environmental bills and reasonably generous operating, transportation and construction budgets, the sassy majority party and their backers and donors were in hog heaven.

To be sure, they had some derailments, such as loss of a gay civil rights bill, and some issues, like the biggest transportation tax package in state history, were going down to the wire.

But Democrats are walking away with a double shot of swagger, enjoying the fruits of their electoral lock on Olympia and happy to give rookie Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire a solid session.

Long time coming: The last time Democrats controlled the governor’s mansion and both houses of the Legislature in a full budget cycle session was 12 years ago. (The short 2002 session barely counts.) Since then, the Legislature has been under Republican or divided control most of those years.

The state joined the country in a rightward drift during those years of the “Republican Revolution” in the mid-‘90s.

The Legislature and initiative writers cut taxes by billions. Then 9/11 crippled the aviation industry and the longest, deepest recession in a generation settled in, leaving legislators to freeze, cut and delay spending on everything from teacher pay to paper clips.

The pendulum began swinging back, eventually restoring Washington’s Blue State hue in last November’s election.

The economy also began swinging back with unemployment dropping. Forecaster Chang Mook Sohn projected an eye-popping $739 million windfall last month.

The tap was back on and folks began lining up at the trough.