Finkbeiner says he won’t seek re-election

OLYMPIA – Republican Sen. Bill Finkbeiner, the former Senate minority leader who stepped down from his leadership role months before switching his vote on a controversial gay civil rights bill, announced Thursday that he would not seek re-election.

“I think it’s better to leave things when you’re doing well,” he said. “It’s always better to go out at the top of your game, and that’s where I am now.”

Finkbeiner said that he wasn’t ready to announce exactly what he was moving on to, but that he was working on a project with other people that had nothing to do with government or politics.

“I’m 36. If I’m going to try and do something outside of politics, it’s probably a good time to do it now,” he said.

Finkbeiner, a social moderate from the Seattle suburbs, could have faced a potentially grueling challenge this fall in a district that has voted Democratic in recent elections. Software millionaire Eric Oemig has announced for the Democratic nomination.

Rep. Toby Nixon, R-Kirkland, immediately announced he would seek the seat, and Finkbeiner said he was endorsing him.

Democrats would like to increase their advantage in the Senate, where they hold a precarious 26-23 margin. With two Democrats – Tim Sheldon of Potlatch and Jim Hargrove of Hoquiam – who have been known to switch sides on more than one occasion, Democrats can never assume they have the 25 votes needed to get anything through.

That was the case last year, when a gay civil rights bill that had been held up in the Senate for years passed by one vote after Finkbeiner had a change of heart and voted against his caucus.

Hargrove and Sheldon voted with Republicans.

In one of the most memorable floor speeches of the legislative session, Finkbeiner explained the reason for his vote.

“We don’t choose who we love. The heart chooses who we will love. And I don’t believe that it is right for us to say … that it’s acceptable to discriminate against people because of that,” he said.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said in a written statement Thursday that she “admired his courage” on that particular vote.

“Although we haven’t been on the same side of every issue, I have always respected his independence,” she wrote.

In November, Finkbeiner announced he would no longer lead the Senate Republican Caucus, opting for more time with his family and focusing on working on getting his MBA at the University of Washington.

Finkbeiner said his decision had nothing to do with rumblings in the caucus last year when some members, including Sen. Don Benton, R-Vancouver, complained about him publicly and agitated for change after he took some votes against the caucus in the 2005 legislative session, including being the lone Republican to vote in favor of a bill that would permit stem cell research.

Finkbeiner was a Democrat when he was first elected to the state House in 1992, but switched parties in the Republican landslide year of 1994, when he won the first of his Senate terms.

He said that when he entered politics, he thought he’d only be in it for a few years.

Fourteen years later, he said he’s happy with what he’s accomplished but is ready to move on when his term ends Dec. 31.

“The thing I’d like to be remembered for is standing up and doing the right thing regardless of the issue, regardless of the pressure,” he said.