WA Dems Shut Governor’s Staff Out of House Chambers

The legislative session in 2025 in Olympia could become very interesting.

   House Dems change rules to effectively 'ban' Governor's staff

It's a procedural move, but it sends a big message.

House Democrats, who control that branch of the WA State legislature, rammed through some procedural changes to their proceedings, one of which will effectively 'ban' staff members from Gov. Bob Ferguson's office.

According to the WA State Standard:

"House Democrats rewrote a longstanding rule allowing automatic admission to the chamber for both governors and their designees. It will now only apply to the state’s chief executive. That means a member of a governor’s administration won’t be let in unless they are invited by a House member."

So aside from Governor Ferguson, his staff is facing a much tougher task of trying to sit in on the proceedings.

It's being viewed by some, including House Republicans, as a 'payback' for Governor Ferguson's inaugural speech in which he strongly hinted at bi-partisanship, and has publicly spoken against tax increases.  Ferguson has said those should only be a last resort.

House Democratic Majority Leader  Joe Fitzgibbon claims it's not so, that the previous language was too open-ended.  But, many others view it otherwise. According to the WA State Standard:

"Some viewed the revision as a not-so-subtle retort to Ferguson’s inauguration speech. Many House Democrats are still steaming over the Democratic governor’s reform-minded message, embrace of Republican priorities and failure to acknowledge Democrat-passed policies in areas like fighting climate change and expanding access to early learning and higher education."

It is no secret there could be a significant collision in the future between the ultra-progressive House, and the new Governor.  During his terms as Governor, Inslee found and supported progressive Democrats who would more likely push his agendas without question, and he openly opposed more moderate Dems in primaries.

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Now, it will be interesting to see how the Inslee-molded legislature 'gets along' with a new Governor who initially appears to definitely have his own policies, views and priorities for WA state.