Senate GOP elects Hewitt as minority leader

Via the AP:

Sen. Mike Hewitt of Walla Walla was elected Monday as the new state Senate Republican leader.

Hewitt succeeds Sen. Bill Finkbeiner of Kirkland, who announced last month that he was stepping down as minority leader to spend more time with his family and on graduate studies at the University of Washington.

"It's nice to let someone else take the reins for a while, especially when you know they're going to do a great job," Finkbeiner said.

Hewitt, who had previously served as Republican whip, beat out two other colleagues, Sens. Linda Evans Parlette of Wenatchee and Joyce Mulliken of Ephrata. The vote tally of the secret ballot was not disclosed.

"I'm pleased and I'm humbled," Hewitt said. "It's a real honor."

Hewitt was first elected to the Senate in 2000 and re-elected in 2004. The owner of a small business for 23 years, he has long been an advocate for small business issues and is the former executive director of the Walla Walla Chamber of Commerce and former chairman of the Walla Walla Planning Commission.

Here's a curious footnote to that: the last minority leader (Bill Finkbeiner), was one of a handful of Republicans in the state Sentate to vote for the 2005 transportation package (including the gas tax). But what's really interesting is that all of the Republicans vying to succeed Finkbeiner also voted in favor of the transportation package.

Here's the roll call:

Chamber: SENATE 2005 Regular Session
Bill No.: SSB 6091
Description: 3RD READING & FINAL PASSAGE
Item No.: 17
Transcript No.: 101 Date: 4-20-2005
Yeas: 31 Nays: 17 Absent: 0 Excused: 1

Voting yea: Senators Berkey, Brown, Deccio, Doumit, Eide, Fairley, Finkbeiner, Fraser, Hargrove, Haugen, Hewitt, Jacobsen, Keiser, Kline, Kohl-Welles, Mulliken, Parlette, Poulsen, Prentice, Pridemore, Rasmussen, Regala, Rockefeller, Schmidt, Sheldon, Shin, Spanel, Swecker, Thibaudeau, Weinstein, and Zarelli.

Voting nay: Senators Benson, Benton, Brandland, Carrell, Delvin, Esser, Franklin, Honeyford, Johnson, Kastama, McAuliffe, Morton, Oke, Pflug, Roach, Schoesler, and Stevens.

Excused: Senator McCaslin.

What does this mean? It seems to indicate that Senate Republicans understand how foolish it would be to have an extremist for a leader. Now, none of the senators who were vying to replace Finkbeiner are progressive. But at least they all had the common sense to recognize how important it is that we invest in transportation, which is a major issue in Washington State.

And for that, we thank them.