Our Views: Timing Sinks All Excuses for State Lawmakers’ Secrecy

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Defenders of state lawmakers who last Friday voted to throw a cloak of secrecy over decades of records have all struck the same tune. 

They say that since a Thurston County judge ruled the lawmakers’ records were public — and that each legislator is a public agency — legislation was needed to update state records law and create a mechanism for the release of documents. That court ruling came after media organizations, including the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association, of which The Chronicle is a member, sued the Legislature in an effort to bring their records to the public.

If the defense of the lawmakers’ need to pass legislation is accepted at face value — and to us, it is not — then why did lawmakers have to act so uncharacteristically fast, without a whiff of input from the public, in order to in effect hide their records from the public for all time? 

It’s clear the lawmakers were enacting what they knew would be unpopular changes to the law. Instead of answering difficult questions and facing criticism from the public, they instead decided it was more politically expedient to simply ram the changes through the state Legislature, the public be damned. 

Lawmakers, including five who represent readers of The Chronicle, caved to party leadership at the expense of fairness, transparency and the purpose of the law.

Both parties are guilty. Democrats and Republicans acted together, introducing the legislation on a Wednesday and voting on Friday afternoon. As of Tuesday, none of our local lawmakers had provided a press release defending their actions, as is so often the case when controversial legislation is passed. Perhaps they, like us, know there is no defense for their actions. Our reporters will look to put them on the record in the days and weeks ahead.

In The Chronicle’s coverage area, only state Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, voted against the harmful measure. On Facebook, he cited the process rather than the contents of the bill, questioning why lawmakers had to act so swifty rather than providing the transparency the people of Washington should expect from the people they elect to office. 



The same question must be posed to Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia; Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama; Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis; Rep Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen; and Sen. Dean Taako, D-Longview.

Specifically in the 20th Legislative District, Braun, Orcutt and DeBolt have provided exemplary representation for constituents for many years. They’ve been effective on flood mitigation, transportation and help for rural residents who are often forgotten in the halls of the Legislature. 

Past success, though, doesn’t excuse present failure. 

Today, we joined newspapers across the state in publishing a Seattle Times editorial calling for Gov. Jay Inslee to veto the measure, despite the so called veto-proof majority vote of the Legislature. 

Doing so would force lawmakers to once again take action in the form of a vote to override his veto. If, again, they do so at expense of transparency, we agree with the conclusion of The Seattle Times — they must have something to hide.