Bipartisan gas-tax vote comes back to haunt two Democratic senators

By David Postman
Times chief political Reporter

Democratic state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

Now, some lawmakers who supported the increase are being attacked for their vote by a Republican political group funded in part by Weyerhaeuser, Microsoft and Boeing.

The group's hard-hitting campaign fliers — blaming the legislators for rising gas prices — help answer a question asked by corporate leaders during the gas-tax debate: What happened to the bipartisan bonhomie that ruled the Legislature in the 1970s and 1980s?

It's gone with the realization that even a bipartisan tax vote backed by state business interests can come back to haunt a candidate in the final weeks of a campaign.

The campaign fliers help explain why faint-hearted lawmakers have been reluctant to take potentially unpopular votes. The state's anti-tax culture is apparently too strong for some campaign managers to resist taking advantage of.

It's also an example of the sometimes contradictory efforts of the state's business community to work its will in Olympia.

Credibility issue

Many big corporations, including Weyerhaeuser, Boeing and Microsoft, give to Democrat and Republican political action committees (PACs). Company executives seem to view donations as nonpartisan, somehow above politics. But their money fights itself and is sometimes used against lawmakers who support the companies' agendas.

"I think some of these large interest groups will have less credibility when they come down to Olympia," said Gov. Gary Locke, who lobbied for the gas-tax-and-transportation package as a pro-business, job-creating measure.

Lawmakers, he said, have reason to be wary of big-business entreaties and calls for bipartisanship support for their agenda.

"They'll say, 'Yeah, you're urging us to do the right thing and yet your contribution to the other party will then be used against us for doing the right thing,' " he said.

Gentlemen's agreement?

In the midst of last year's negotiations over the gas tax, lawmakers said they talked about their fears over how the vote would be used in this year's election. Democrats and Republicans say they agreed not to use the agreement as campaign fodder, though there's dispute over whether that was a specific "gentlemen's agreement" or a more vague consensus that the tax vote would be off-limits.

	Democratic state Sen. Jim Kastama

Senators Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, and Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup, were among 14 Democrats who voted for the gas-tax increase. They now find themselves the target of the Republican attack.

Meanwhile, there were 15 Republicans in the Senate who voted for the tax increase, including Dino Rossi, now the GOP candidate for governor. Yet it was The Leadership Council, a political action committee controlled by the Senate Republican leadership, that sponsored the attacks on Haugen and Kastama.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Finkbeiner, R-Kirkland, said Republicans would have no comment. He voted for the gas-tax increase.

At least one Republican is being targeted for supporting the transportation package. But Sen. Jim Horn, R-Mercer Island, and chairman of the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee, is being hit by environmental interests not for the gas-tax increase, but for backing a plan that the groups say shortchanged mass transit.

Leadership Council

In the past two years, Microsoft has given The Leadership Council $30,000, according to the Public Disclosure Commission. Boeing gave $22,500, and Weyerhaeuser nearly $30,000.

Microsoft does not comment on individual political donations, said spokeswoman Tami Begasse.

Boeing officials did not know the ads were being produced and only found out about them this week, said company spokesman Peter Conte.

"It is unfortunate that something as modest as a five-cent gas-tax increase, that had widespread bipartisan political and community support, has become a partisan issue," Conte said. "We view the gas-tax increase to improve transportation systems in this state not as a partisan issue but as a competitiveness issue."

Boeing, Microsoft, Weyerhaeuser and other business backers of The Leadership Council also give to the Democratic leadership political action committees.

Weyerhaeuser spokesman Frank Mendizabal said donors do not control how the money is spent. "It's always too bad when partisanship is involved, and they all participate in that," he said, adding it is particularly too bad that transportation funding has become politicized this year.

Kastama says the companies that help finance The Leadership Council could have stopped the hit pieces. "I think they bear a lot of responsibility," he said yesterday. "If they let it be known that this item was too important to play politics with, the Republicans would not do it."

Big issue in 2003

That was certainly the message through three years of legislative wrangling over transportation funding. The fight dragged out after lawmakers took no action in 2001, sent a ballot measure to voters in 2002 that failed, and then raised the tax by a nickel a gallon in 2003.

House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, said in 2001 that legislators were being lobbied by Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates and Alan Mulally, chief of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, to "get your backbones in place and do what you need to do."

Gov. Locke joined in, too, saying, "I'm very concerned about the messages that Boeing and Microsoft and other major employers are sending about the need for a transportation fix."

In 2003, Haugen, the ranking Democrat on the Senate transportation committee, said it was Boeing's lobbying that won enough votes to raise the gas tax.

"I think Boeing's telling us, 'Listen, it's our No. 1 issue, we're going to leave,' " she said at the time.

The fliers criticizing Haugen and Kastama showed up in mailboxes last weekend with a very different message.

"Why do gas prices keep going up?" the fliers ask. "Haugen voted to raise gas taxes 22%," they scream in huge type.

The piece aimed at Kastama is similar.

Boeing and Weyerhaeuser have contributed to Kastama's and Haugen's re-election campaigns. Microsoft has given to Haugen.

"I would be absolutely astounded if any of the companies that supported the Legislature passing the gas tax had any inkling [the political groups] would do this," said Doug Beighle, a retired Boeing executive who chaired the state's Blue Ribbon Commission on Transportation, which first called for a gas-tax increase. "It's just not consistent with where they were. I guess they'll be taking a hard look at what they donate next time."

"Not happy campers"

Haugen said she has spoken to some of the businesses that back The Leadership Council, and "they're not happy campers." She was armed with a list of donors to the PAC, and said there were many businesses listed that had lobbied her to raise the gas tax.

"There was a gentlemen's agreement that we would all not make this a political issue," she said.

Horn said there was a lot of discussion about trying to avoid entangling the vote in this year's campaign. But, he said, "I don't think anyone formalized it in an agreement."

He is unhappy that The Leadership Council attacked Haugen and Kastama for the gas-tax vote and said he has expressed that to Senate leadership. The three senators agree with Locke that it will make future transportation votes more difficult.

Locke says the businesses that fund the PAC have an obligation. The companies said the transportation improvements were essential for their financial well-being, and the construction jobs funded by the tax increase have created thousands of good-paying jobs.

"These companies should at least put out a statement praising these legislators, these Democrats, for having done the right thing," Locke said. "These businesses should set the record straight."

David Postman: 360-943-9882

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company

E-mail this article

Print this article

Search archive

More local news headlines...