When it comes to open government, Washingtonians can be proud of the pioneering role their state played.

Sunshine laws came into vogue in many states in the 1970s, and Washington was one of the first and most aggressive. Civic activists like the late Jolene Unsoeld took a crowbar to the walls of secrecy that had concealed government and politics from public view.

As a result, not only are public records now accessible and public meetings open, but candidates for office (including advocates for and against ballot measures) have to tell who’s bankrolling their campaigns. Candidates have to reveal their personal financial interests. The amount of money spent by lobbyists to shape public policy must be disclosed.

At least that’s the way it’s supposed to work. Secrecy is addictive, though, and government is full of abusers who just can’t control their impulses.

By his own account, U.S. Sen. Larry Craig was willing to plead guilty to a crime he says he didn’t commit, just to keep anyone — family, friends, voters, colleagues — from finding out about the incident and the circumstances under which it happened.

Ironic, isn’t it, that Craig’s fear of exposure was intensified in many ways because of his own political actions? If the word got out, it might have strengthened rumors that he is gay, which might not carry such an undeserved stigma if it weren’t for the political persecution that Craig and other social conservatives wage against gays and lesbians.

But Craig’s self-preservation strategy in a Minneapolis airport bathroom is hardly an isolated reflex. More salacious than most, perhaps, but not rare.

Consider Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire’s handling of a Seattle newspaper’s request for the names of people she chose not to name to the state’s new Sunshine Committee.

The committee was created this year when the Legislature passed and the governor signed a bill pushed by Attorney General Rob McKenna. Its job will be to examine a mushrooming of exemptions to the Public Disclosure Law in the 30-plus years since Unsoeld and her allies took it to the voters.

After the governor announced her appointments to the new committee, including a controversial chairman who is notorious in some circles for fighting in court against access to public records, she was asked: OK, who requested to be on the committee but got passed over? Her initial denial merely prompted more criticism, so her eventual acquiescence hardly looked like a genuine commitment to openness.

And without openness, self-government is impossible. That was the spirit behind the Public Disclosure Law as well as the Sunshine Committee.

While public officials have a natural inclination to hide information that might raise uncomfortable questions, there are occasional glimmers of encouragement.

This week, the Washington state Supreme Court handed down a 7-2 decision affirming the authority of the Public Disclosure Commission and McKenna’s office to enforce disclosure laws against a political group that waged a campaign against former attorney general candidate Deborah Senn three years ago.

The television ads that scorched Senn during the 2004 Democratic primary turned out to have been bankrolled heavily by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But that information was withheld at first, leaving voters without the ability to evaluate the message in light of the donors’ self-interest.

The innocuously named Voters Education Committee that received $1.5 million from the U.S. Chamber and arranged for the ads claimed that forcing it to disclose the source of its funding violated its First Amendment rights.

To which Justice Mary Fairhurst replied in the court’s majority opinion: “…these disclosure requirements do not restrict free speech — they merely ensure that the public receives accurate information about who is doing the speaking.”

That, after all, is the common theme found in all sunshine legislation. If you expect people to hold their government accountable, make sure the government can’t hide critical information from them.

Washingtonians need to stay on guard against all attempts to sidestep those expectations. We have a legacy to uphold.