Washington’s longtime Lieutenant Governor Brad Owen announces his retirement

In a noon speech today before the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate, long­time Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Brad Owen announced that he has decid­ed to retire from pub­lic life after five terms and won’t seek reelec­tion this autumn.

Owen, who has served as Pres­i­dent of the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate since Jan­u­ary 1997 — also fill­ing in for Gov­er­nors Gary Locke, Chris Gre­goire, and Jay Inslee at times — made his inten­tions known in a speech from the rostrum.

“Near­ly twen­ty years ago I took a much under­used office and with the help of many peo­ple that worked in my office over the years, made some­thing sig­nif­i­cant out of it that I am very proud of,” Owen told the Sen­ate and many assem­bled guests.

“But now I will be leav­ing this office when this term is up next Jan­u­ary. I will leave it for the next Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor to build upon, to make it even bet­ter. Of course I sin­cere­ly hope that the vot­ers choose a per­son that cares as much about the dig­ni­ty of this place, about this insti­tu­tion, as I do.”

“And most of all I can­not express how impor­tant I believe that it is for the per­son who fol­lows me to car­ry on what I believe to be the hall­mark of my twen­ty years as Pres­i­dent of the Sen­ate, the true unequiv­o­cal com­mit­ment to non­par­ti­san run­ning and deci­sion mak­ing before this body.”

Wrap­ping up his remarks, he said: “To all of you here in the sen­ate and across the rotun­da in the house, I thank you for the work you do, the com­mit­ment and sac­ri­fices I know many of you have to make to be here. I tru­ly thank those that stood by and helped me i n my time of need just as I have stead­fast­ly done for all of you when­ev­er I was asked over the last near­ly twen­ty years.”

“I am very appre­cia­tive of the time you have allowed me today to share these thoughts with you. And final­ly, to the peo­ple of the great State of Wash­ing­ton, who put their trust in me as a Shel­ton City Finance Com­mis­sion­er, as a mem­ber of t he House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, as a State Sen­a­tor and final­ly, as your Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor. It was a rare priv­i­lege and a great honor.”

Upon con­clud­ing his speech, he was laud­ed with a stand­ing ova­tion, and many sen­a­tors rose on points of per­son­al priv­i­lege to thank him for his years of service.

Gov­er­nor Inslee also paid trib­ute to Owen in a statement.

“I join sev­en mil­lion Wash­ing­to­ni­ans in thank­ing Brad Owen for his long­time ser­vice to the state of Wash­ing­ton,” said Inslee. “Start­ing on the Shel­ton City Com­mis­sion and then the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and Sen­ate, Brad’s four decades of rep­re­sent­ing his com­mu­ni­ty have left an impact on our state. As the pre­sid­ing offi­cer of the Sen­ate for the past twen­ty years, his steady hand and lead­er­ship has helped main­tain order and civil­i­ty in a sea of change.”

“From his work men­tor­ing youth and lead­ing the fight against sub­stance abuse, to pro­mot­ing eco­nom­ic devel­op­ment to grow our econ­o­my, Brad’s ded­i­ca­tion and work for the peo­ple of his com­mu­ni­ty and all Wash­ing­to­ni­ans has been paramount.”

“Brad has always hit the bull’s‑eye as an archer and Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor. And after forty years in ser­vice to the peo­ple of Wash­ing­ton, I’m sure Brad is look­ing for­ward to a few more fish­ing and hunt­ing trips next year. Tru­di and I wish him and Lin­da all the best in what­ev­er their future holds.”

Antic­i­pat­ing Owen’s retire­ment, four Demo­c­ra­t­ic leg­is­la­tors have already announced their inten­tions to seek the office he holds. State Sen­a­tor Cyrus Habib, State Sen­a­tor Karen Fras­er, and State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jim Moeller have active cam­paigns, while State Sen­a­tor Steve Hobbs has said he’s explor­ing a run.

Back in the late sum­mer of 2015, Owen filed paper­work with the PDC for a 2016 cam­paign, but it appears he only did so in order to be able to accept checks he’d got­ten in the mail. Owen did not active­ly fundraise before the ses­sion freeze, even though oth­er Democ­rats were jump­ing into the race.

Owen said pub­licly he would think about his polit­i­cal future and announce a deci­sion after or near the end of the 2016 short ses­sion — which he has now done.

Owen will leave office a lit­tle less than a year from now with a dis­tin­guished legacy.

A stick­ler for the Con­sti­tu­tion and for deco­rum, Owen has been a depend­able ally in the fight against Tim Eyman’s ini­tia­tive factory.

Owen is one of the few peo­ple in the state­house will­ing to repeat­ed­ly stand up to and dis­ci­pline the noto­ri­ous and incred­i­bly obnox­ious Pam Roach, an Eyman cohort. Last year, Owen put a stop to Sen­ate Repub­li­cans’ attempts to sub­vert the Con­sti­tu­tion by requir­ing a two-thirds vote to advance rev­enue bills. Owen struck down a rules change pushed through by Sen­ate Repub­li­cans as uncon­sti­tu­tion­al.

And he coura­geous­ly banned firearms from the Sen­ate gal­leries, in a noble effort to keep the Sen­ate a safe work­place and friend­ly envi­ron­ment for visitors.

We at NPI are great­ly appre­cia­tive of Brad’s ser­vice to our state and wish him well as he enters the next chap­ter of his life. We’ll miss see­ing him behind the ros­trum. His suc­ces­sor def­i­nite­ly has big shoes to fill.