It appears, according to lefty Seattle blog Publicola, that Democrat women in the State House of Representatives are unhappy that leadership positions were not handed out based on a quota system when the recent House committee structure was announced. Because if they were, there would more than one Democrat woman on the leadership team operating under Frank Chopp’s iron fist.
There has been plenty of speculation that Chopp is going to have a difficult time herding his cats in the House, since he only has a 51-47 majority over the Republicans after losing four seats in November (three of his loses were in districts previously represented by Democrat women, and adding insult to injury, three Republican women won in those contested seats). Since it takes 50 votes to prevail on final passage in the House – not just a majority of those voting – Chopp can’t allow more than a single Democrat take a walk on a hard vote.
Clearly the Democrats are not basing their leadership and committee chair selections based on neither quotas, nor competence – otherwise how could admitted law-breaker Roger Goodman be named as Chair of the Public Safety Committee? Perhaps those rewarded with seats at Chopp’s leadership table are those he can most easily control – and thus women were disproportionally left out of his boys club.
