Joni Balter / Seattle Times editorial columnist
Dean of the budget vs. financial dreamland

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Politics is the art of the possible, the saying goes, and state Rep. Helen Sommers, dean of state budget writers, knows as well as anyone what can be done in Olympia and what cannot.

That kind of practicality can get a person in trouble, and it has.

Meet Alice Woldt, Sommers' toughest challenger in years. Woldt, former executive at the Church Council of Greater Seattle, has close ties to the social service community and close ties to a union that demanded a hefty raise from the state amid the worst economy in years.

Like Sommers, Woldt is a Democrat so this pitched election will be decided in the September primary. Woldt and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents home health care workers, have come out swinging against Sommers, chairwoman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and an Olympia institution.

Presiding over a budget with a $2.6 billion shortfall, Sommers had to balance spending needs against the desire of the governor and Senate not to raise taxes. A tax increase would have further slammed the economy.

Woldt's pitch, in essence, is Sommers is not a big enough spender.

How retro — and off base. Sommers should be praised for having the guts to keep Democrats and Republicans honest about the numbers.

Woldt would spend more by revoking business tax breaks that can help the economy rebound. She is also a big booster of a state income tax, which isn't going to happen soon. She is in the race in large part because SEIU asked her to run.

In 2002, the union reached an agreement with state negotiators that called for a $2.07 an hour raise and new benefits. In 2003, lawmakers rejected the contract and approved a salary increase of 75 cents an hour; that was followed this year by an additional 50 cents per hour plus benefits. Not bad, when few other workers were even able to spell the word r-a-i-s-e.

As anyone who has had an elderly or sick relative dependent on home care knows, home health care workers deserve a raise. They really do. But with budgets squeaky tight, there is not enough money to pay for the heftiest increases. Cuts had to be made in social service programs, too.

To balance the budget two years ago, Gov. Gary Locke proposed suspending two education initiatives. Sommers reluctantly went along

Woldt says she would try to sustain Initiative 728, the class-size reduction measure, and Initiative 732, the teacher pay raise. All of us would love smaller class sizes and teacher pay raises. But both initiatives dishonestly relied on a state surplus that disappeared in a hurry.

It is one thing to sit on the sidelines and talk about how you would cater to different constituencies, quite another to stare at a finite number in a real budget.

Voters of the 36th District — Magnolia, Queen Anne, Fremont, and Ballard — have a clear choice: Sommers the realist or Alice in Financial Wonderland.

State Rep. Eileen Cody, of West Seattle, is a nurse, a member of SEIU and a staunch Sommers supporter.

"I've told the union they are making a big mistake," says Cody. "They are scapegoating Helen for not getting the home health care workers' contract through. All of us wanted to do the whole contract, but we were making tough decisions every day."

Woldt seems genuine and sincere. She has her own mind and agenda, but she would come into office beholden to a union that is helping finance her campaign and distributing fliers trashing Sommers.

If the Legislature staged its own awards ceremony, Sommers could step on stage any time to receive a lifetime achievement award. After 32 years in Olympia, she is the ultimate pro.

But voters usually don't care what has happened before. They want to know what a legislator can do for them — now!

The latest state forecast shows increased hiring and higher tax proceeds will boost revenues as much as $247 million. Sommers is best suited to putting that money to work in a good way.

Sommers has tremendous institutional knowledge about budgets, social services and the new economy. She is a strong advocate for higher education in general, the University of Washington in particular.

It would take Woldt years to reach Sommers' level of effectiveness and sway.

Voters owe Sommers nothing. Yet by the cold calculation of personal interest, it is better to have a legislator who can win goodies through respect earned statewide and across the political aisle than a newbie whose politics would leave her working the margins of Olympia politics.

Joni Balter's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is jbalter@seattletimes.com