Story Photos
 Photo by Roger Werth Former state sentator Sid Snyder, a Long Beach Democrat who retired from the Legislature four years ago, talks at his home about politics past and present. |
A sit-down talk with Sid Snyder
Sunday, December 10, 2006 11:25 PM PST
By Don Jenkins
Printable version
E-mail this articleLONG BEACH ---- During an interview at his beachfront home, former state senator Sid Snyder spoke in a low, calm voice befitting an elder statesmen who once guided the Senate as majority leader. The voice rose just once and just long enough for the 80-year-old to impersonate a whiny lawmaker pleading to have his name on a piece of legislation. "Oh, I've got to have this bill!"
"There's something in legislators that makes them think that if they don't get bills passed, they're not going to get re-elected," Snyder said. "That was one of my big problems."
More than four years have passed since Snyder resigned midterm from the Legislature, an institution he had served continuously for 53 years.
He has returned to the capital three times since then. He came to ask Gov. Chris Gregoire to support a Lewis and Clark event in Pacific County, for the retirement party of a Senate aide and finally to see a Capitol Campus street named after him.
He's been invited to come again in January and speak at an orientation for new members of the House. Snyder said he will urge freshman lawmakers to keep a journal. He said he wished he had one to draw on as he records his memoirs for the Secretary of State's oral history program. "Even just two minutes a day," he said, "it would have helped."
Oral historian Sharon Boswell has been interviewing Snyder to flesh out the well-known outlines of his career, which he began in 1949 as a 22-year-old elevator operator at the capital.
At various times, the Kelso native was a top administrator for the House and Senate and finally became a lawmaker himself, representing the 19th District in the Senate for 12 years.
He's so well-thought of in the capital and back home that there's a Sid Snyder Avenue in Olympia and a Sid Snyder Drive in Long Beach. He owns "Sid's Market" in Seaview and has now been in the grocery business for 53 years, tying his legislative tenure.
His oral history, which Snyder said he hopes will be finished within a year, promises to be anecdote rich. "One story leads to another," he said.
Although Snyder is spending time looking back on his life and has purposely refrained from haunting the capital or hiring himself out as a lobbyist ("I think word got around pretty quickly I wasn't interested), he hasn't faded away.
At a campaign rally in Longview for Sen. Maria Cantwell in November, Snyder received a response from the collected Democrats second only to the one showered on the candidate herself. When Democrats met last month to nominate candidates to replace state Sen. Mark Doumit, Snyder was there to support Brian Hatfield, who eventually got the appointment.
For this story, Snyder talked about why Democrats fared well in November, why the Democrats' large majority in the state Senate could be a problem and why legislators should be paid more.
Democrats picked up six seats in the Senate, a huge gain considering Democrats and Republicans have struggled to get the upper hand since 1980. That year, Ronald Reagan topped the GOP ticket and Republicans picked up five Senate seats. In early 1981, a Democratic senator switched parties and the Republicans had a 25-24 seat edge, the first time they held the majority since 1956.
Since then, control of the Senate has bounced back and forth. But with November's gains, Democrats now hold a 32-17 majority, their largest advantage since 1965.
Senate Republicans were casualties of the Iraq War, Snyder said.
"They say all politics is local, but this election proved everything isn't local. I think people were fed up with the federal Republican administration," he said.
"A lot of people told me, 'I'm just going to vote for Democrats this time.' And these were people who I know were split-ticket people in the past," he said. "I think the voters of Washington are independent. I think there are very few people who vote a straight-party ticket anymore. But this election might have disputed that theory, too."
From 1995 until he retired, Snyder was the Senate Democratic leader. For several sessions, Snyder had a one-seat majority to work with. Plans could derail if a single Democratic senator was sick, called away by a family emergency or aligned with Republicans.
But Snyder wasn't wistful when asked how he would have liked to lead a Senate dominated by Democrats.
"That may be too many," he said. "You've got too many people to try to please with committee assignments and getting bills through."
One of Snyder's favorite lines is, "You can get more done if you don't care who gets credit for it." Snyder credits the saying to the late Joel Pritchard, a Republican lawmaker from Seattle.
Snyder said he believes voters can see the grandstanding. "I think your constituents who are interested will know whether you were instrumental in passing that bill."
As a Senate leader, Snyder helped recruit Democratic candidates. "It's not easy," he said.
Potential candidates are reluctant to subject themselves to press scrutiny or report their financial dealings to the Public Disclosure Commission, Snyder said. "I didn't mind revealing things, but my biggest fear was you might miss things and somebody files a complaint and you're fined. Well, that makes you look like a criminal."
Snyder said people are ready to believe the worse about politicians, even on fictional TV shows. "The politicians are always the evil people in these plots," he said.
"All my time there (in the Senate) no one offered me anything to vote one way or the other. I never saw anybody get money or anything for any kind of a vote," he said. "But the image is created that if you're a politician, you're going to do something wrong."
The biggest factor in discouraging would-be candidates is the time required to campaign and serve, Snyder said.
Until 1980, the Legislature met every other year for 60 days. Now sessions are annual, and sessions in odd-numbered years last 105 days.
"When I was first associated with the Legislature, legislators went to Olympia and were there for 60 days, maybe a little longer," Snyder said. "They went home and they went to their local service clubs and made a little speech. Eighteen months later they filed again (for re-election) and it was the same routine."
Out of session, legislators are now called upon to meet with chambers, school boards, city councils, county commissioners, service clubs, etc.. For 19th District lawmakers, that means crisscrossing four counties with little fanfare.
"I can remember going to a meeting in Longview at noon, driving to Aberdeen for an evening meeting and driving home. How many people knew you were there? Very few," Snyder said. "When you're honest with people and tell them how much time it's going to take to be a legislator (they learn) you really can't have any other job."
The work is suppose to be part time. Legislators receive an annual salary of $36,311, a salary set by a citizens' commission. Lawmakers also receive $90 a day for expenses while the Legislature meets.
"I like the citizen-type Legislature that we still have," Snyder said. "I like the fact that when I was a member I could go back to the store on the weekend or during the interim and have people give me hell or congratulate me because this passed or that passed or this didn't pass or that didn't pass. If you get the salary so high, you eliminate some of that contact."
Snyder, however, also said it's hard to balance legislative work with a job in the private sector or family obligations. Snyder's successor as 19th District senator, Cathlamet Democrat Mark Doumit, resigned in October to take a better-paying job as head of the timber industry's state trade association.
Doumit cited family considerations in giving up the seat. He also gave up being vice chairman of the Senate budget committee, a position that gave him tremendous influence but also required long hours writing the budget.
"Mark Doumit leaving is a great loss, not only to the 19th District, but the entire state of Washington, and I bet I can round up hundreds of people who will agree with me on that. It just comes down to the fact, 'Is it family or is it the Legislature?' " Snyder said.
Snyder said legislators' salary should be comparable to county commissioners, who in most counties are considered full time. (Cowlitz County commissioners make about $67,000 this year.)
"I would say most legislators put in more time and effort being a legislator than most county commissioners do being a county commissioner. And I'm not trying to knock county commissioners at all," Snyder said.
"What should they be paid? I don't know, but more than they are today. It should probably be double."
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