A Washington state House Republican lawmaker is speaking out after an 87-page investigation was released Monday afternoon regarding the lawmaker’s alleged pattern of bullying.
The investigation concluded that Rep. Michelle Caldier from Gig Harbor violated the policies of the state House of Representatives and that she demonstrated “a pattern of behavior in which she lashes out at people, makes public statements that have the impact of demeaning and embarrassing individuals and is generally disrespectful.”
Additionally, the report concluded that accommodations for her disability were provided despite the lawmaker’s allegations that she was not provided with reasonable accommodations.
The lawmaker pushed back on the allegations, however, and also maintained that accommodations for her disability were not met.
Caldier described the situation as “frustrating” and said that there were “numerous inaccuracies” in the report.
“The accused member is not given knowledge of the allegations, nor are they allowed to have people interviewed to support their position,” she explained. “The investigator is only able to ask open-ended questions, and if the member is not sure what the investigator is asking, they are not able to provide specifics and the accused member would not have an opportunity to defend themselves from the allegations.”
The lawmaker continued that the format used for the investigation “is likely why no legislator has ever survived an ‘Independent Investigation’, and would never pass muster in any other employment situation or court of law.”
Fifteen people were interviewed for the investigation, including the lawmaker herself.
According to the report, the investigation was launched in response to an incident at the Spokane airport in 2022 between Caldier and the House Republican Caucus Attorney, Cathy Hoover.
While Caldier was in the restroom at the airport, Hoover also entered and attempted to greet Caldier, the report claims. When Caldier did not respond, Hoover again greeted her.
Caldier admitted that she then called Hoover a “terrible person” and said that she was done talking to her. Another Republican staffer also heard the confrontation in the restroom and later testified against the lawmaker in the investigation.
Other accusations were also included in the report.
One interviewee described the lawmaker as “unpleasant,” a “yeller” and “someone who blames others for her mistakes and who is generally unappreciative.”
The report also noted that Caldier has had ten legislative assistants since she took office in 2015, with one reporting that they had experienced “extreme anxiety” from working with the lawmaker.
Caldier denied any wrongdoing, and said she even wrote a letter of recommendation for that particular assistant. Additionally, she has since met up with that assistant outside of the Legislature, she said.
The lawmaker said that she believed “it was no coincidence” that the investigation was launched after she left the House Republican Caucus earlier this year, citing issues with leadership.
She said that the “triggering event” which led to her departure from the Republican Caucus occurred shortly before the confrontation at the airport.
The incident occurred at a House Republican Organization Committee meeting in Spokane, in which a PowerPoint presentation about election results and what the committee was doing to support candidates was presented to attendees. Caldier, who has vision problems from sudden blindness in 2016, had asked for a copy of the presentation to be sent to her phone so she could see it better. She said she never received the PowerPoint in her email and was told “it wasn’t personal.”
“The ability to get PowerPoints or any help from them diminished after I challenged leadership, and I realized I could probably do a better job representing my constituents outside of the House Republican Caucus,” Caldier said. “I knew that giant step would come with consequences, but was fed up with the treatment I had received and the treatment I watched others receive as well.”
When asked about the accusations from Caldier, Rep. J.T. Wilcox, R-Yelm, and former House Minority Leader simply told McClatchy that Caldier “does a good job of representing her district.”
“I never wanted to get engaged in trading barbs,” he added.
When asked about the status of their current interactions, Wilcox said he’s in a caucus room with her, “but you can probably judge from her what the relationship is like.”
Wilcox declined to go into more specifics about other accusations from Caldier.
Caldier said her accommodations for her disability were not met in other ways, including with the use of Microsoft Teams chat messaging.
Teams was difficult for her to use because of her disability and being unable to change the font size, she said, but she was told to use it by attorneys because she was told Teams messages are not subject to public disclosure. A majority of inter-caucus communication was done through Teams, Caldier said. Teams chats messages are indeed disclosable under the state’s Public Records Act.
An attorney for Disability Rights of Washington is now representing Caldier in the investigation.
In a letter, Edward Earl Younglove III said that “there appears to be an undeniable, troubling pattern in the Washington State House of Representatives with regard to enforcement of its code of ethics.” Younglove has previously represented a Democrat who also fell “out of favor with their respective political leadership,” he said. Both Representatives are women, with the other being an “African American” he added.
“These are strong women elected to represent their districts who were each subjected to an unfair political process, barely disguised with trappings of supposed due process,” Younglove said. “The gravamen for the complaints against each were allegations of their disrespectful treatment of others. In each case, they were found by the same investigator not to be credible, while at the same time any person interviewed in support of the allegations was determined to be credible, even where their testimony was admittedly hearsay and outside their personal knowledge.”
Neither was afforded the opportunity to cross examine witnesses, he said.
Regarding the incident in the airport bathroom, Younglove noted she was approached by Hoover who was responsible in part for Caldier’s exit from the Republican Caucus.
“The appropriateness of the lawyer’s confronting Rep. Caldier by surprise in a public bathroom at a time when she must have known Rep. Caldier’s emotional state would have been raw and fragile, having just resigned from her caucus, seems to have never been questioned,” Younglove continued. “This was exacerbated by the fact that because of her vision disability, Rep. Caldier was caught completely by surprise by the lawyer’s comments to her in the bathroom.”
Younglove also said that the investigator for the report seems to not only “challenge Rep. Caldier’s need for a disability accommodation, but also the psychological implications of her disability.”
Caldier said at no point was she told the investigator was going to make a determination on whether or not she received reasonable workplace accommodations.
“This has been the most disappointing part of the report, as many components are missing due to how the information in the report is collected,” she added.
The investigation is currently being appealed.
