Republican State Senator Barbara Bailey to resign effective September 30th, 2019

One of the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate’s most vul­ner­a­ble Repub­li­cans is call­ing it quits ahead of the 2020 short ses­sion and pres­i­den­tial elec­tion cycle.

Sen­a­tor Bar­bara Bai­ley (R‑10th Dis­trict: Island Coun­ty, Stan­wood), who defeat­ed vet­er­an Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Mary Mar­garet Hau­gen in 2012, has decid­ed to resign and leave the Sen­ate ear­ly instead of serv­ing out of her term and retiring.

In a let­ter to Gov­er­nor Inslee, Bai­ley explained her deci­sion.

After much prayer and dis­cus­sion with my fam­i­ly, I have made the deci­sion to step down from my Sen­ate seat effec­tive Sep­tem­ber 30th, 2019. This deci­sion was not tak­en light­ly; how­ev­er, I believe now is the best time to make this move. I have been giv­ing this deci­sion a lot of thought for the past three-four months.

Spend­ing qual­i­ty time with my fam­i­ly and church has been dif­fi­cult at best, and unwork­able at oth­er times. There are sig­nif­i­cant projects and ven­tures in which my hus­band and I want to be involved while we are still rea­son­ably healthy and mobile.

I leave with a great sense of accom­plish­ment of some sig­nif­i­cant issues which were passed into law, and which have made life for our cit­i­zens more effi­cient and mean­ing­ful. Specif­i­cal­ly, mak­ing high­er edu­ca­tion more afford­able in our pub­lic insti­tu­tions, bet­ter sup­port for our vet­er­ans and their depen­dents, improved health care for our aging pop­u­la­tion, and as Chair of the Select Com­mit­tee for Pen­sion Pol­i­cy, ensur­ing long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty at a time when oth­er pen­sion sys­tems around the coun­try were in crisis.

Our pen­sion sys­tem now ranks among the most sta­ble in the nation.

I plan to stay engaged with those pro­grams affect­ing the well-being of our senior cit­i­zens to ensure they have improved access and resources for their care and dignity.

It has been my hon­or to have served the state of Wash­ing­ton, and specif­i­cal­ly the cit­i­zens of the 10th Dis­trict. I will always be avail­able for con­sul­ta­tion and con­tin­ued ser­vice when and where needed.

The Sen­ate Repub­li­cans today respond­ed to the let­ter by issu­ing a pub­lic state­ment lav­ish­ing praise on Bai­ley for her con­tri­bu­tions as a legislator.

What Bai­ley does­n’t say in her let­ter is that she was fac­ing an uphill bat­tle to secure reelec­tion in 2020. Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Helen Price John­son declared her can­di­da­cy for the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate a few weeks ago, and Democ­rats believe the 10th is ripe for flip­ping, espe­cial­ly giv­en Dave Paul’s vic­to­ry last year.

(State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dave Paul unseat­ed incum­bent Repub­li­can Dave Hayes for one of the 10th’s two House seats last cycle, tak­ing over the posi­tion Bai­ley once held while a state rep­re­sen­ta­tive after pre­vail­ing in a close race.)

By resign­ing, Bai­ley is mak­ing way for a fel­low Repub­li­can — per­haps State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Nor­ma Smith, one of the most thought­ful and lib­er­al Repub­li­cans in the state­house — to serve in the Sen­ate ahead of the 2020 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion and gain some of the advan­tages of incum­ben­cy pri­or to fac­ing the voters.

It will still be an open seat, though, and Democ­rats will make it a top pri­or­i­ty, along with Smith’s House seat, which she near­ly lost last year. If Smith moves over to the Sen­ate, it presents House Democ­rats with an oppor­tu­ni­ty for anoth­er pickup.

In accor­dance with the Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion, the Cen­tral Com­mit­tee of the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty (present­ly chaired by Caleb Heim­lich), must now draw up a list of three pos­si­ble suc­ces­sors for Bailey.

This list will then be pre­sent­ed to the Island and Skag­it Coun­ty Com­mis­sions plus the Sno­homish Coun­ty Coun­cil, as the 10th is a mul­ti-coun­ty dis­trict. The coun­ty leg­isla­tive author­i­ties will then have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to joint­ly make an appoint­ment. If they can­not reach agree­ment, Gov­er­nor Inslee will make a choice.

We’ll keep you post­ed on fur­ther developments.