Senate Power Struggle Reshuffles Committees
Surprising committee appointments in the State Senate reveal shifting political alliances in Olympia.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Surprises in Lieut. Gov. W. Lon Johnson’s list of senate committee appointments were the elimination of Senator P. H. Carlyon from the powerful rules committee and the displacement of Senator W. W. Conner as chairman of the public utilities committee. Equally interesting was the fact that King County’s representation on the rules committee was cut from two to one when the name of Senator William Wray was dropped, leaving Senator Hasting as the lone representative of the big county. Wray was supplanted by Senator Geo. Christenson, of Skamania County, a Democrat.
“King county’s representation on the rules committee was cut from two to one.”
Internal committee assignments are the true engines of legislation, and the regional friction between King County and the 'cow counties'—as rural districts were then known—remains a persistent theme in Washington legislative politics, echoing the long-standing urban-rural divide in state governing.
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