Sheldon

Sheldon detractors try new tack

Group of Democrats will gather to plot strategy for living with maverick

BRAD SHANNON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Friday, April 12, 2002

"I want someone who is respected enough by his colleagues and effective enough to defend us. I don't think he (Sheldon) can do that."

Dave Wood, 35th District Democratic group

OLYMPIA -- With no opponent poised to knock off Democratic state Sen. Tim Sheldon, some disgruntled South Sound Democrats say it's time for a new approach to the legislator who often teams up with Republicans.

"We don't have any hope of bringing him closer to the party line. What we want to do is see how we can make him more effective," said Dave Wood, vice chairman of the 35th District Democratic group.

The group is having a 1 p.m. reorganization meeting Saturday at Belfair's North Mason Timberland Library.

Sheldon said he'll attend the meeting, but shakes his head at critics in his own party, such as Wood.

They represent a fringe viewpoint not shared by most voters in the district, Sheldon said.

The 35th takes in Mason County and parts of Thurston, Grays Harbor and Kitsap counties. It is an area once dominated by timber and natural resources industries.

The district added several thousand Bremerton voters in last year's redistricting, which could make it more Democratic.

Sheldon, who lives in Potlatch, contends that his freewheeling style as the Democrats' 25th senator -- who often joins 24 Republicans to pass bills friendly to business interests -- is needed to represent his constituents' wishes.

Sheldon said he's effective, sponsoring 25 bills that have become law since being elected to the House in 1991, including measures to increase public safety around sex predators.

Another 17 measures that mirrored his bills also were signed into law, he said, including a worker training bill in 1993 that was hailed by labor.

His own way

Still, Sheldon pokes his own party in the eye at times.

Two years ago, he told the world that he voted for George W. Bush for president, had a fund-raiser for Republican state Commissioner of Public Lands candidate Doug Sutherland and endorsed Republican Slade Gorton for U.S. Senate.

Wood and the 35th-district Democrats' chairwoman, Stacia Bilsland of Elma, now are blaming Sheldon for not saving the Mission Creek Youth Camp near Belfair from closure.

Budget cuts approved last month by lawmakers will eliminate more than two dozen jobs at the camp.

Wood noted with some relish that jobs are supposed to be the top goal of Sheldon, who heads the Mason County Economic Development Council.

"I want someone who is respected enough by his colleagues and effective enough to defend us. I don't think he can do that," Wood said.

Wood suggested Sheldon is unable to negotiate for his district's best interest on budget issues because he is uncooperative on other issues.

Wood would rather see Sheldon act like Republican Sen. Alex Deccio of Yakima, who traded his budget vote for assurances of money for nursing homes this year, or Republican Sen. Shirley Winsley of Fircrest, who traded her vote for aid to cities. "There is no way Alex Deccio would have lost the Mission Creek camp," Wood said.

Rocky relations

Sheldon's relationship with Democrats is often strained in the Legislature. When Democratic Rep. Kathy Haigh of Shelton visited the Senate chamber this year, senators greeted her, some asking when she'd run for the Senate and others taking her by the arm like a dear old friend.

Sheldon, of course, has heard it all before.

Somewhat relaxed in talking about his troubled relationship with Democrats, he noted that he has run as a Democrat and consistently been elected to the Legislature, seven years in the House and five in the Senate, with that label.

He even steamrolled a hand-picked Democrat, appointed incumbent Sen. Lena Swanson, to win his Senate seat in 1997.

Another maverick, Democrat Brad Owen, had held the seat until winning the lieutenant governor job in 1996.

As for his budget vote, Sheldon says he may be the only Democrat in the Legislature who voted against the Mission Creek closure.

The other Democrats -- including his seatmates in the House, Haigh and Rep. Bill Eickmeyer of Belfair -- voted for the budget, which Sheldon said "stunk."

In opposing the budget, Sheldon complained that it cost taxpayers too much money and did not cut enough state jobs.

Long memories

Sheldon, who considered bolting to the Republican Party two years ago, says he no longer has that in his viewfinder, although he rubs shoulders with the GOP.

Republican congressional candidate Trent Matson introduced him recently at a GOP dinner in Grays Harbor County as a Democrat who is sometimes the best Republican in the state Senate.

Sheldon said Democrats are especially worked up this year because their state party's attempts to overturn the state's blanket primary system means that Democratic Party leaders will be unable to handpick candidates carrying the party label -- in other words, to oust him.

Sheldon, who remembers the appointment of Swanson a few years ago instead of him, attended a recent Mason County Democrats' lunch at which he waved news clippings concerning ex-Sen. Swanson's guilty plea to taking money from veterans she was supposed to help at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Sheldon didn't ask for an outright apology for being passed over for Swanson.

Wood said he'd consider discussing an apology to Sheldon at Saturday's meeting, but Bilsland has no interest and doubts one ever will be extended.

Bilsland, who describes Sheldon's relationship with Democrats as "tentative and at times quite difficult," is also less willing than Wood to concede Sheldon's re-election in the fall.

In fact, Bilsland and Mason County Democratic Party Chairman Neal Nogler said they haven't given up trying to find a candidate who might take him on in the primary.

Wood is doubtful.

"Now that the judge has ruled on the blanket primary, there is no scenario in my mind that Tim can be beaten," Wood said.

On the Web:

- Sen. Tim Sheldon: www.leg.wa.gov/senate/members/senmem35.htm

- Mason County Democrats: www.masoncountydemocrats.com

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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