Update: Washington State politics

Here's an interesting post from a local guy. The blog is called RidenBaugh Press (I can't link to the specific post). His beat seems to cover the entire northwest. I like the groovy way he puts a small icon of the state he is referring to in each post at the top of each post. If you don't care a lick about Idaho you can ignore the posts with a little icon of Idaho at the top.
Anyway, he has this to say about the congressional session that just finished up there.

No one in Washington politics would have believed, four months ago, that the Washington Legislature would come to this point just four months later. What has happened in the months since has been remarkable...

Cut to Sunday, when the session came to an end.

First, it ended - remarkable in itself. This was the constitutional closing date for the session, but frequently in recent years that mark has meant little: Key business has gone untended, and the governor has had to call them back. Sometimes twice. Sometimes more. But this time, they got done - got it all done, the budget, the revenue, all the essential stuff - on time.

But even more interesting is why. It seems that there are many Republicans helping the slim majority of Democrats pass important project and budget bills. Why, you ask?

Consider this, from the Seattle Times, from Deputy House Republican Leader Mike Armstrong, R-Wenatchee, who opposed the transportation package and has been a strong backer of Republican Dino Rossi in his ongoing court battle for the governorship:

"Armstrong gave Gregoire a lot of credit for breaking the logjam and bringing about the transportation plan's passage. The governor, he said, made it clear that Democrats needed and wanted the Republicans' help. 'She lighted a fire and reignited this issue when it was waning,' Armstrong said. 'That's what leaders do.'"

So it turns out that Gregoire is not the boogie-man that Republicans paint her out to be. I recall that even a Democrat friend of mine up there wasn't really sure she would be any better than Rossi, i.e. an insider/business as usual politician.
I wonder if the narrow election victory and the controversy afterward has caused Gregoire to resist partisan tendencies and try to really work with the opposition to get business done. If so that would be a great victory for Washington.
I can't believe I'm saying this about a Democrat.

Anyway, I was saying at the time it was going on that whoever lost officially should just shut up and focus all their effort on the election process and try to fix the process for the NEXT election, not the previous one. I think we can all live with a Democratic governor who is willing to respond and get things done without playing too many games.