A wild week in state politics

The last couple days have brought two significant developments on the state political scene where the Legislature passed a law that will ban discrimination against gays and lesbians, and where both state parties replaced retiring leaders with newcomers to the party leadership.

Friday the state House and Senate did what had failed to be done for roughly 30 years perviously: add sexual orientation to the list of reasons for which a person cannot be discriminated against in employment, housing and insurance. Gov. Chris Gregoire has said she would sign the bill into law this week. It is shocking to think that it took until 2006 for the state to protect gay men and lesbians from being fired, being denied housing rental or sale or being able to get insurance because of their sexual orientation.

Opponents of the measure -- mainly Republicans and a couple conservative Democrats -- used two main arguments to fight the ban on discrimination. They said the measure would lead to the state allowing people of the same sex to wed. It does not allow such marriages. However, the state supreme court is expected to issue a ruling soon in a case heard last spring about whether the state's constitution does allow such marriages. The other argument basically said employers, landlords and other business people should not be forced to accept something to which they are morally opposed (homosexuality) or that gays and lesbians do not face the same discrimination as people of color or the disabled. However, state law already forbids discrimination because of a religion -- something that arguably has a moral perspective and which is clearly a choice. Using the Repiblican logic, one could ask whether an employer who is Muslim should be forced to hire someone who is Christian.

Some have raised the idea of taking the recently passed law to the people as a referendum. By the time that made its way to the ballot it would have been a law already for months or more, and I suspect people in Washington state, known for their tolerance and progressive attitude, would be reluctant to remove rights once granted.

Saturday the two main parties elected new chairs. The Democrats chose Dright Pelz, a former King County Councilman and state legislator from Seattle, who was the favorite of the state's senior U.S. Senator, Patty Murray, and Gov. Gregoire. He replaces the retiring Paul Berendt, who led the party for several years, culminating in a contentions election recount and court challenge from November 2004 to June 2005. Pelz beat Laura Ruderman, a former state legislator who was the Democrat candidate for Secretary fo State in 2004.

Thhings for the Republicans did not go as predictably. The party's vice chair, Fredi Simpson of Wenatchee, had collected the endorsements of the state's most prominent Republicans, including the 2004 GOP gubernatorial nominee, Dino Rossi, Attorney General Rob McKenna and the state's Republican U.S. Representatives: Dave Reichert, Doc Hastings and Cathy McMorris. The successful candidate instead was Diane Tebelius, who lost to Reichert in the primary in the suburban Eighth District in 2004. She is an attorney with Justice Department experience and replaced Chris Vance, who left to take a job in the private sector. Wenatchee's reputation as the nexus of GOP power in Washington state seems to be slipping in favor of the Eastside suburbs of Seattle.

With a contentious 2006 election approaching, these two new chairs each have an uphill battle. The GOP hopes to make gains in the Legislature and perhaps a Congressional seat, but their big prize is the U.S. Senate seat occupied by Maria Cantwell, who barely beat Slade Gorton in 2000. The Republicans are also still bitter about the gubernatorial election of 2004, which they say was stolen from Rossi despite three vote tallies and an airtight court case that did not prove anything and in fact cost Rossi four votes.

The Democrats seek to hold the Legislature and Congressional seats as well as send Cantwell back to the other Washington. Sen. Hillary Clinton was in Seattle Friday for a Cantwell fundraiser, the first of what will likely be several Democrat stars traipsing through the state to keep that seat in the Democrats' hands. It's key to the Democratic National Committee's hopes of regaining the U.S. Senate in 2006 and the White House in 2008.

There are no other statewide races in 2006, so these will get all the media attention. Pelz has promised to do something that has not occurred in many Eastern Washington counties in a long time: field a candidate in every race in the state. Issues such as the WASL, the state budget and the newly passed gay-rights measure will surely factor into the races. If Pelz is successful at finding candidates, 2006 may shape up to be interesting as some incumbents are forced to engage in debate where they have run unopposed for years.

-- Wenatchee, Wash.