Olympia's Legislative Marathon
New lawmakers end the tradition of weekend breaks, mandating a full six-day work week while lobbyists keep the capitol's social scene fueled.
A senator in the upper house of the Washington state legislature arose to his feet and began to talk. At the end of 10 minutes he was still going. A brother solon pulled out a watch and remarked that the talk had cost the people of the state $16. The legislature has appropriated $120,000 for a 60-day session, or $2,000 for each day, spent at the rate of $90 for each hour. Outbursts of righteous indignation over expenditures are common. When Seattle and Tacoma members insisted on spending Saturday at home with their families, new members unaccustomed to legislative tradition stirred up a fuss. As a result, the legislature is now working a full six-day week. While the work is serious, the 'wheels within wheels' of party leadership and the omnipresent influence of lobbyists—who often supply 'liquid refreshments' because the cost of spirits is too high for legislators to buy themselves—define the session's daily rhythm.
“There are too many wheels within the wheels of this legislative machinery and I never seem to get inside, but hang around the fringe.”
The perennial tension between legislative 'tradition' and public demands for efficiency remains a hallmark of Washington state politics. Today, as in 1923, the Capitol continues to struggle with the optics of taxpayer-funded time, while the influence of lobbyists remains a constant, if modernized, facet of the session.
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