Judy Clibborn (D‑41st District: Mercer Island, Bellevue) to retire from the state House

One of sub­ur­ban Wash­ing­ton’s longest-serv­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic leg­is­la­tors has decid­ed not to seek reelec­tion in 2018, set­ting the stage for a change of lead­er­ship on the House Trans­porta­tion Com­mit­tee and open­ing up a seat on the Eastside.

State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Judy Clib­born (D‑41st Dis­trict: Mer­cer Island, Belle­vue, New­cas­tle) announced today that her cur­rent term will be her last.

“Trans­porta­tion is about build­ing bridges — and not just phys­i­cal ones,” Clib­born said in a news release. “It’s about lis­ten­ing to each oth­er and con­nect­ing each part of our beau­ti­ful state to each oth­er part. I’m proud of how we’ve coop­er­at­ed to improve our high­ways, fer­ries, bus­es and trains dur­ing a time of mas­sive pop­u­la­tion growth in our state. And final­ly, I want to thank my con­stituents for the honor.”

Before com­ing to the Leg­is­la­ture, Clib­born was a Mer­cer Island city coun­cilmem­ber and the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Mer­cer Island Cham­ber of Commerce.

She first won elec­tion to the Wash­ing­ton State House in 2002, defeat­ing Repub­li­can Mike Wens­man and gar­ner­ing 52.70% of the vote. At the time, most East­side leg­isla­tive seats were held by Repub­li­cans, where­as today, almost none are. The 41st, 45th, and 48th Dis­tricts have all-Demo­c­ra­t­ic del­e­ga­tions, and the 5th Dis­trict has a Demo­c­ra­t­ic sen­a­tor who has won twice consecutively.

Ross Hunter was elect­ed along with Judy Clib­born in the adjoin­ing 48th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict that same year. Both served one term with pio­neer­ing State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lau­ra Rud­er­man, who left the Leg­is­la­ture in 2004 to unsucess­ful­ly run for Sec­re­tary of State against Sam Reed. (Rud­er­man was suc­ceed­ed by Lar­ry Springer, who con­tin­ues to rep­re­sent the 45th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict today.)

“There are few leg­is­la­tors serv­ing here who have had such an impact on the lives of Wash­ing­to­ni­ans as has Judy Clib­born,” said Speak­er Frank Chopp.

“In her role as chair of the Trans­porta­tion Com­mit­tee, she has craft­ed bud­gets that cre­at­ed tens of thou­sands of pub­lic works jobs, improved our roads and high­ways, invest­ed in tran­sit, and kept our freight sys­tems func­tion­ing. Per­haps most impor­tant­ly, she did all this while work­ing across the aisle in a bipar­ti­san fash­ion. We in the Leg­is­la­ture will miss her exper­tise and leadership.”

Clib­born, who suc­ceed­ed Ed Mur­ray as House Trans­porta­tion Chair, played a sig­nif­i­cant role in craft­ing the 2015 Con­nect­ing Wash­ing­ton high­way invest­ment plan ten years after the Leg­is­la­ture enact­ed the land­mark 2005 Trans­porta­tion Pack­age, which the right wing attempt­ed to over­turn with Ini­tia­tive 912.

Con­nect­ing Wash­ing­ton also autho­rized new sources of rev­enue for Sound Tran­sit, enabling the agency to put a Phase III pro­pos­al before vot­ers in 2016.

Though not con­sid­ered to be one of the cham­ber’s more pro­gres­sive Democ­rats, Clib­born has nonethe­less helped pro­gres­sive caus­es in the Leg­is­la­ture on many occa­sions. For exam­ple, she has repeat­ed­ly deflect­ed numer­ous attempts to sab­o­tage Sound Tran­sit’s gov­er­nance (includ­ing one by Ed Mur­ray in 2007).

It is no exag­ger­a­tion to say that were it not for Judy Clib­born, Sound Tran­sit might have been sub­ject­ed to a hos­tile takeover by road war­riors years ago.

Clib­born also been a vocal advo­cate for leg­is­la­tion to help fos­ter chil­dren. She walks her talk, hav­ing served as a fos­ter par­ent herself.

We at NPI thank Judy for her many years of pub­lic ser­vice and wish her well in her future endeav­ors. The post of House Trans­porta­tion Chair is a very impor­tant one, and after the House reor­ga­nizes lat­er this year, we hope to see it filled by a leg­is­la­tor who is com­mit­ted to tran­sit for all and free­dom of mobility.