Democrats speak out following Republican takeover of Washington State Senate

As we report­ed ear­li­er this evening, the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate Repub­li­cans, act­ing in con­cert with three Democ­rats in Name Only (Jim Kas­ta­ma, Rod­ney Tom, and Tim Shel­don) have seized con­trol of the floor of the Leg­is­la­ture’s upper cham­ber, effec­tive­ly turn­ing the remain­der of the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus into the minor­i­ty par­ty with a week left to go in the 2012 reg­u­lar session.

On Face­book, on Twit­ter, and through their offices, many Demo­c­ra­t­ic sen­a­tors are speak­ing out in oppo­si­tion to the takeover and the new­ly-mint­ed Repub­li­can major­i­ty’s attempt to ram through a bud­get that has not received any pub­lic hear­ings or scruti­ny. What fol­lows is a col­lec­tion of the state­ments they’ve shared with us over the last few hours.

Sen­a­tor Sharon Nel­son (D‑34th District):

Tonight I am sad­dened that three Democ­rats, Sen­a­tors Jim Kas­ta­ma, Rod­ney Tom, and Tim Shel­don assist­ed the Repub­li­cans in tak­ing over the Sen­ate floor. While the Repub­li­cans may be cel­e­brat­ing, I am going through a bud­get which they just brought out of the back room. While the Democ­rats pro­vid­ed an addi­tion­al $38.7 mil­lion to K‑12 edu­ca­tion, this Repub­li­can bud­get cuts K‑12 by $44 mil­lion. While the Democ­rats’ bud­get added funds to high­er edu­ca­tion, the Repub­li­cans cut high­er edu­ca­tion by $30.4 mil­lion. Plus, the poor and work­ing fam­i­lies sus­tain a $311 mil­lion cut — 4 times the cuts in the Democ­rats’ bud­get. This is a bud­get for the top one per­cent and I can under­stand why they kept it in a back room until now.

Sen­a­tor Kevin Ranker (D‑40th District):

I am deeply dis­ap­point­ed by the deci­sion of Sen­ate Repub­li­cans to cir­cum­vent our state’s for­mer­ly trans­par­ent bud­get­ing process to pass a bud­get that dev­as­tates our state’s safe­ty net and our K‑12 and high­er edu­ca­tion system.

Tonight, I believe per­son­al agen­das and right-wing ide­olo­gies out­weighed the need for a 21st cen­tu­ry edu­ca­tion sys­tem that pre­pares our chil­dren for a glob­al econ­o­my, com­pre­hen­sive health­care and crit­i­cal envi­ron­men­tal protections.

Where­as the Demo­c­ra­t­ic bud­get makes no cuts to K‑12 and high­er edu­ca­tion, the Repub­li­cans’ bud­get slash­es K‑12 edu­ca­tion by $44 mil­lion and high­er edu­ca­tion by $30 million.

Their pro­pos­al fur­ther dev­as­tates women’s health by slash­ing funds to mater­ni­ty sup­port ser­vices and fam­i­ly plan­ning, ser­vices that Wash­ing­to­ni­ans want and need.

It sig­nif­i­cant­ly weak­ens our state’s envi­ron­men­tal and eco­log­i­cal com­mit­ment to our future by sweep­ing funds intend­ed for clean-up of tox­ic waste sites and elim­i­nat­ing over 1,000 asso­ci­at­ed jobs.

This bud­get was craft­ed in secret and is near­ly 300 pages long. At this late hour, the pub­lic has not had a chance to view this bud­get, much less under­stand the sever­i­ty of its cuts

I find today’s action to con­sti­tute an absolute dis­ser­vice to the public.

Sen­a­tor Nick Harp­er (D‑38th District):

There is a bud­get being debat­ed this evening with­out ever hav­ing had a pub­lic hear­ing. An amend­ment that was pro­posed, which I spoke in favor of, would have restored fund­ing to our Dis­abil­i­ty Life­line Health pro­gram. This pro­gram offers health care to over 12,000 peo­ple, many of whom have severe men­tal ill­ness. The amend­ment failed. This bud­get will make our com­mu­ni­ties sig­nif­i­cant­ly less safe by dra­mat­i­cal­ly increas­ing our crime rates and deny­ing our most vul­ner­a­ble Wash­ing­to­ni­ans the ser­vices they des­per­ate­ly need and deserve.

Sen­a­tor Craig Pride­more (D‑49th District):

Jim Kas­ta­ma and Rod­ney Tom have tak­en over the Sen­ate in order to pass the Repub­li­can agen­da for the State of Wash­ing­ton. Should be an inter­est­ing evening/weekend.

Sen­a­tor David Frockt (D‑46th District):

The Repub­li­cans who have hijacked the bud­get tonight on the Sen­ate floor (with the help of a few Dems) have reject­ed every amend­ment we have offered except one that I just got them to take back — the one to restore their cut to fund­ing to the Col­lege Suc­cess Foun­da­tion for schol­ar­ships for dis­ad­van­taged kids. Small vic­to­ry, in an oth­er­wise out­ra­geous evening of stunts, shenani­gans and bad policy…

Sen­a­tor Regala (D‑27th District):

When I came to the Leg­is­la­ture in 1995, I was unfa­mil­iar with many of the process­es by which bills became the laws of our state. I had my ideas of course, but lit­tle famil­iar­i­ty with the body that I had joined. In spite of that, I was excit­ed to be a part of the process and eager to make a pos­i­tive contribution.

At one of my first com­mit­tee hear­ings, I received a shock that I have not for­got­ten. The com­mit­tee chair­man, from the oppo­site par­ty, asked for my vote on a lengthy water pol­i­cy bill that I had just been hand­ed. No expla­na­tion of what it did and no oppor­tu­ni­ty to read/review it. My igno­rance of the facts, intent and effects of that bill did not mat­ter. I was being asked to vote for a bill I had no knowl­edge of.

You can imag­ine the shock and sad­ness that I felt and my dis­il­lu­sion with the process I had become a part of. Since that time, I have striv­en to be knowl­edge­able of every piece of leg­is­la­tion I cast a vote for, whether in sup­port or opposition.

This is my final year in the State Leg­is­la­ture and I had hoped it would end with my nev­er hav­ing to feel that way again. You can imag­ine my sad­ness and dis­ap­point­ment at the actions of Sen­ate Repub­li­cans and three mem­bers of my own par­ty, which plunged the entire Sen­ate into a state of par­ti­san chaos. Once again, I was being asked to vote on a bill on which I had no knowledge.

This time, it is not a nar­row­ly focused pol­i­cy bill mov­ing through com­mit­tee, but a 233 page bud­get amend­ment that will cut ser­vices crit­i­cal to the lives and liveli­hoods of thou­sands of our states res­i­dents. The shame and anger I feel at today’s dis­play of the par­ti­san acts that has gripped our coun­try is overwhelming.

In clos­ing, I can only promise, as I did before, to not cast a vote for a doc­u­ment that I do not under­stand or have knowl­edge of. It is our respon­si­bil­i­ty as law­mak­ers for the State of Wash­ing­ton to pass leg­is­la­tion that is in the best inter­ests of our state.

In my remain­ing days as a Sen­a­tor, how­ev­er many they may be, I pledge to con­tin­ue to fight for our state and to ensure that any bill which pass­es off the Sen­ate floor is done so with the process and pro­ce­dure that I have always believed in.

As of this hour, the Sen­ate is still in ses­sion in the Leg­isla­tive Build­ing in Olympia, with Democ­rats offer­ing amend­ment after amend­ment to the Repub­li­can major­i­ty’s bud­get pro­pos­al. Near­ly all of the amend­ments they have offered have been reject­ed by a vote of twen­ty-five to twenty-four.

The Repub­li­can takeover of the Sen­ate all but guar­an­tees that there will need to be a thir­ty-day spe­cial ses­sion called to con­tin­ue work­ing on a sup­ple­men­tal oper­at­ing bud­get. House Democ­rats have made it plain­ly clear that the Sen­ate Repub­li­cans’ bud­get pro­pos­al will be dead on arrival in the House, and Gov­er­nor Chris Gre­goire — whose sig­na­ture is need­ed to enact any bud­get — has also strong­ly con­demned it.

Nei­ther Rod­ney Tom nor Tim Shel­don will be fac­ing vot­ers this year, as both were reelect­ed in 2010 to four year terms. Jim Kas­ta­ma, on the oth­er hand, will be on the bal­lot, whether he choos­es to remain in the race for Sec­re­tary of State, or runs again for Sen­ate. (His term expires at the end of 2012).

Shel­don already had a rep­u­ta­tion as a Repub­li­can who calls him­self a Demo­c­rat. (He endorsed and sup­port­ed George W. Bush back in 2004). He could prob­a­bly win elec­tion in his some­what con­ser­v­a­tive dis­trict as a Repub­li­can. Kas­ta­ma and Tom, on the oth­er hand, rep­re­sent more pro­gres­sive dis­tricts, and have cam­paigned for office on Demo­c­ra­t­ic val­ues and principles.

If, like us, you are appalled by what they have done ear­li­er this evening — and what they are still doing at this very hour — then let them know: