Democrats settle score with Tim Sheldon by electing Pam Roach as President Pro Tem

Wash­ing­ton State’s Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus made the most of an oppor­tu­ni­ty to hold Tim Shel­don account­able for his treach­ery at the end of 2012 by join­ing forces this after­noon with mil­i­tant Repub­li­cans Don Ben­ton and Pam Roach to elect the rene­gade Roach as Pres­i­dent Pro Tem of the Wash­ing­ton State Senate.

Shel­don had expect­ed the posi­tion to go to him a sec­ond time (it first went to him as a con­se­quence of the pow­er coup he and and Rod­ney Tom engi­neered with the Sen­ate Repub­li­cans in 2012) but Democ­rats bril­liant­ly turned the tables on him and the Sen­ate Repub­li­can cau­cus’ lead­er­ship in an unex­pect­ed maneu­ver that result­ed in the posi­tion going to Roach instead.

The final vote was twen­ty-five for Roach and twen­ty-four for Shel­don. A major­i­ty vote car­ried the day (take note, Tim Eyman) and Roach was duly elect­ed and sworn in as Pres­i­dent Pro Tem­pore by Chief Jus­tice Bar­bara Madsen.

Real­iz­ing what the Democ­rats were up to, Repub­li­can floor leader Joe Fain placed Sen­a­tor Karen Fraser’s name into nom­i­na­tion. But none of the Democ­rats, Fras­er includ­ed, vot­ed for Fras­er. Instead, they pro­vid­ed the bulk of the votes need­ed to get Pam Roach elect­ed, with Roach and Ben­ton sup­ply­ing the final two votes.

It was real­ly some­thing else to watch. See­ing the faces of the pow­er-hun­gry Sen­ate Repub­li­cans as they real­ized they were get­ting played was incred­i­bly sat­is­fy­ing. Schoesler and Shel­don only found out some­thing was up short­ly before the vote.

Shel­don, of course, is in no posi­tion to dis­par­age Roach or Ben­ton. He want­ed pow­er two years ago and made a deal to get it. He can hard­ly com­plain about his col­leagues’ actions. After all, he chose them as cau­cus-mates first!

The posi­tion of Pres­i­dent Pro Tem­pore of the Sen­ate, like that of Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate, is most­ly cer­e­mo­ni­al, although it does guar­an­tee a seat on the very impor­tant Sen­ate Rules Com­mit­tee as Vice Chair.

Pro Tem­pore is Latin, and it basi­cal­ly means for the time being in Eng­lish. The Pres­i­dent Pro Tem­pore is the per­son who fills in when the Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate — Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Brad Owen — is absent. Ordi­nar­i­ly, Owen is present and able to pre­side, but that’s not always the case.

The posi­tions of Vice Pres­i­dent Pro Tem­pore and Sec­re­tary of the Sen­ate went to Sharon Brown and Hunter Good­man, as anticipated.

Amus­ing­ly, the Leg­is­la­ture’s web­site con­tin­ues to list Tim Shel­don as Pres­i­dent Pro Tem­pore. I’m sure they’ll get that cor­rect­ed by the end of the day, if not sooner.