Chief
02-21-2008, 05:13 AM
http://columbian.com/news/localNews/2008/02/02212008_Jim-Dunn-He-isnt-done-yet.cfm
Thursday, February 21, 2008
By KATHIE DURBIN, Columbian staff writer
OLYMPIA — State Rep. Jim Dunn is wearing one of his loudest ties — a mélange of green leaves and yellow and orange ribbons that he ordered off the Internet — as he strolls into his office on the fourth floor of the John O’Brien Building.
It’s the halfway point in the 2008 legislative session and Dunn is in good spirits, despite the fact that House Republican leaders stripped him of all committee assignments for the 2008 session after he made an inappropriate, sexually suggestive comment to a female legislative staff member last year at a Kennewick bar. The incident occurred after hours during a House Education Appropriations Subcommittee field trip.
The sanction left a yawning hole of unstructured time in Dunn’s schedule during a period when much of the hard work of the Legislature is being done. It’s in committee meetings where lawmakers hear from the public and weigh the arguments before deciding whether to let a bill die or move it forward.
Dunn has filled that hole, he says, with constituent meetings that he never had time for before, along with receptions, town hall meetings, tapings of his weekly video press releases, and lobbyist-sponsored meals. “We’ve been talking to a lot of people we aren’t usually able to,” he says. “I am busy.”
Sometimes, during the lunch hour, he walks his dog.
Dunn, a Vancouver Republican who represents the 17th Legislative District, has been introducing bills, too — four this session in addition to the seven he introduced last year.
One would relax credentials for out-of-state teachers. Another would offer property tax relief for seniors and the disabled. A third would require health care professionals to report drunk drivers to the police. The fourth would exempt employees from paying union dues if it violated their personal beliefs or the teachings of their church.
None of Dunn’s bills have been voted out of committee, few have attracted more than one or two co-sponsors, and none of this year’s bills have even received committee hearings. Even for a member of the minority party, that’s evidence of a lack of political clout.
But Dunn said he does much of his legislative work behind the scenes. Since 2007, he has signed on to co-sponsor about 50 bills. Many were sponsored by fellow Clark County legislators, including Democratic Reps. Deb Wallace, Bill Fromhold and Jim Moeller.
“A number of my bills don’t have my name as prime sponsor,” Dunn says. “I don’t want my reputation to hurt the chances of any bill I’m working on, so I try to get the chair or co-chair to sign on.”
Dunn was quick to put out a press release last week when an electronic learning bill he co-sponsored passed the House. Wallace, who also represents the 17th District, chairs the House Higher Education Committee and was the bill’s prime sponsor. But Dunn put his name first on the news release.
With no committee assignments, Dunn admits he has felt left out this year. In particular, he misses the Housing Committee, where he was the ranking Republican and worked on affordable housing issues.
But he says his absence has made no difference to the process in a Legislature where Democrats hold a 63-35 majority.
“We are in the minority, and headed for the superminority. The other party doesn’t have to pay any attention to us.”
As action in the 2008 Legislature moved from committees to the House floor last week, Dunn regained his platform. His colleagues were quickly reminded of the traits that cause eyes to roll in the chamber every time he rises to speak.
Dunn’s rambling floor speeches often have only a tenuous relationship to the bills he’s speaking for, as when he reminded lawmakers that he grew up on the Mississippi River Delta — in the midst of debate over a bill to authorize the purchase of new ferries for the state’s crippled ferry system.
He often makes fun of his own considerable girth. During November’s one-day special session, he rose, paused to catch his breath, and said, “I’m a big fat guy. I don’t take deep breaths.”
Dunn claims it doesn’t bother him that he’s the butt of jokes on the House floor.
“Sticks and stones is my philosophy,” he said. “The best way to help things like that go away is to ignore them.”
A lone vote
Dunn holds the current House record for the number of bills on which he has cast the sole “no” vote over the past three sessions.
On Feb. 14, he was the only House member to vote against House Bill 2798, which will remove some barriers that prevent school lunch programs from buying fresh produce from Washington farms. The bill passed 95-1, with two members excused.
His vote drew a scathing comment from Kurt Fritts, the executive director of Washington Conservation Voters. Environmental groups have made the bill one of their top four priorities for the session.
“Rep. Jim Dunn should be ashamed of voting against a bill that is good for our farms and our children,” Fritts said in a statement. “When every member of the House votes for a bill like this one, and Jim Dunn doesn’t, he makes clear that his votes are cast without thought or reason. He owes an explanation to the people of the 17th District.”
Asked about his vote, Dunn said he opposes state mandates on local school districts. “Promote, don’t demand,” he said.
On Monday, Dunn once again cast the lone vote on the House floor, this time on a popular bill to fight criminal gang activity. The bill passed 94-1.
The reasons for Dunn’s votes may often be incomprehensible, but he does feel passionate about some issues, including providing pay equity for part-time college faculty members.
“One of my main drivers is those who receive the lowest pay,” he said. “Part-time faculty members work three jobs, make $14,000 a year and get no benefits. It’s criminal that the state does that to balance its budget.”
Hard feelings
Dunn’s relationship to the caucus that stripped him of his committee assignments is strained.
“I caucus with them,” he said. “I state my arguments. There are people who agree and people who don’t.”
Rumors about Dunn’s alleged boorish behavior around women are rife in Olympia.
“When I went in to talk to leadership, they had a stack of papers several inches high,” he said. But he said caucus leaders didn’t tell him what was in that stack.
Every rumor he’s heard about himself, he said, “is just flat not true.”
His wife of 42 years, Joan Dunn, has stood by him, he said. “She’s really mad at the leadership.”
He added: “I don’t keep anything from my wife.”
When House Republican Leader Richard DeBolt took away Dunn’s committee assignments and travel reimbursement privileges, he said he wanted evidence Dunn’s behavior had changed and suggested he get sensitivity counseling.
That hasn’t happened.
“We haven’t come to the conclusion of who is going to pay for it,” Dunn said. He looked into it, he said. “It’s terrifically expensive. I can’t afford it.”
Dunn is retired but earns $41,280 as a state legislator.
So what has he done to change his behavior? Stopped drinking, he said.
“Because of the meds I’m taking, I don’t drink at all,” Dunn said. A diabetic, he’s taking new drugs to lower his cholesterol and control his blood-sugar levels.
So was it the drinking that prompted him to make that remark to a legislative staffer?
“No, I didn’t have to be drunk to say what I said in jest, and in sarcasm,” Dunn said. “That was Jim Dunn being Jim Dunn. I apologized that night.”
He believed at the time and still believes that the disciplinary action was politically motivated, led by Democrats, and aimed at getting him to give up his seat.
DeBolt has denied it. He says the decision to discipline Dunn was a unanimous one made by the Republican caucus leadership and that Dunn could still redeem himself by showing that he has changed his behavior.
But Dunn said he doesn’t know how he is supposed to show caucus leaders that he has cleaned up his act. “How do I prove it to them? They haven’t talked to anyone down south.”
“A lot of people who are criticizing Dunn are people who have never contacted us,” said Mike Wallin, Dunn’s legislative assistant.
That said, Dunn still hasn’t decided whether to run for a third term. He has raised no money for a re-election campaign.
He’s had a long run. He served from 1996 through 2002, was defeated by Wallace in 2002, and regained his seat in 2004. In 2006 he narrowly defeated Democrat Pat Campbell after Campbell staged a Democratic primary upset of Jack Burkman, who had the endorsement of the state’s Democratic establishment.
This year Dunn would have opposition in the Republican primary from Joseph James, a political newcomer, and would likely face Tim Probst, a work force development director with a long list of endorsements, in the general election.
“We’re going to wait until after session. I’m keeping my options totally open,” Dunn said. The deciding factors, he said, will be his family’s wishes and the desires of his supporters. “I have an ever-increasing circle of friends that are upset about what happened.”
If he does run, he said, he’s not worried about having a well-funded Democratic opponent.
“I’ve had it before and I’ll have it again. They think I’m the weakest target and they always have.”
Kathie Durbin can be reached in The Columbian’s Olympia bureau at kathie.durbin@columbian.com or 360-586-2437.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
By KATHIE DURBIN, Columbian staff writer
OLYMPIA — State Rep. Jim Dunn is wearing one of his loudest ties — a mélange of green leaves and yellow and orange ribbons that he ordered off the Internet — as he strolls into his office on the fourth floor of the John O’Brien Building.
It’s the halfway point in the 2008 legislative session and Dunn is in good spirits, despite the fact that House Republican leaders stripped him of all committee assignments for the 2008 session after he made an inappropriate, sexually suggestive comment to a female legislative staff member last year at a Kennewick bar. The incident occurred after hours during a House Education Appropriations Subcommittee field trip.
The sanction left a yawning hole of unstructured time in Dunn’s schedule during a period when much of the hard work of the Legislature is being done. It’s in committee meetings where lawmakers hear from the public and weigh the arguments before deciding whether to let a bill die or move it forward.
Dunn has filled that hole, he says, with constituent meetings that he never had time for before, along with receptions, town hall meetings, tapings of his weekly video press releases, and lobbyist-sponsored meals. “We’ve been talking to a lot of people we aren’t usually able to,” he says. “I am busy.”
Sometimes, during the lunch hour, he walks his dog.
Dunn, a Vancouver Republican who represents the 17th Legislative District, has been introducing bills, too — four this session in addition to the seven he introduced last year.
One would relax credentials for out-of-state teachers. Another would offer property tax relief for seniors and the disabled. A third would require health care professionals to report drunk drivers to the police. The fourth would exempt employees from paying union dues if it violated their personal beliefs or the teachings of their church.
None of Dunn’s bills have been voted out of committee, few have attracted more than one or two co-sponsors, and none of this year’s bills have even received committee hearings. Even for a member of the minority party, that’s evidence of a lack of political clout.
But Dunn said he does much of his legislative work behind the scenes. Since 2007, he has signed on to co-sponsor about 50 bills. Many were sponsored by fellow Clark County legislators, including Democratic Reps. Deb Wallace, Bill Fromhold and Jim Moeller.
“A number of my bills don’t have my name as prime sponsor,” Dunn says. “I don’t want my reputation to hurt the chances of any bill I’m working on, so I try to get the chair or co-chair to sign on.”
Dunn was quick to put out a press release last week when an electronic learning bill he co-sponsored passed the House. Wallace, who also represents the 17th District, chairs the House Higher Education Committee and was the bill’s prime sponsor. But Dunn put his name first on the news release.
With no committee assignments, Dunn admits he has felt left out this year. In particular, he misses the Housing Committee, where he was the ranking Republican and worked on affordable housing issues.
But he says his absence has made no difference to the process in a Legislature where Democrats hold a 63-35 majority.
“We are in the minority, and headed for the superminority. The other party doesn’t have to pay any attention to us.”
As action in the 2008 Legislature moved from committees to the House floor last week, Dunn regained his platform. His colleagues were quickly reminded of the traits that cause eyes to roll in the chamber every time he rises to speak.
Dunn’s rambling floor speeches often have only a tenuous relationship to the bills he’s speaking for, as when he reminded lawmakers that he grew up on the Mississippi River Delta — in the midst of debate over a bill to authorize the purchase of new ferries for the state’s crippled ferry system.
He often makes fun of his own considerable girth. During November’s one-day special session, he rose, paused to catch his breath, and said, “I’m a big fat guy. I don’t take deep breaths.”
Dunn claims it doesn’t bother him that he’s the butt of jokes on the House floor.
“Sticks and stones is my philosophy,” he said. “The best way to help things like that go away is to ignore them.”
A lone vote
Dunn holds the current House record for the number of bills on which he has cast the sole “no” vote over the past three sessions.
On Feb. 14, he was the only House member to vote against House Bill 2798, which will remove some barriers that prevent school lunch programs from buying fresh produce from Washington farms. The bill passed 95-1, with two members excused.
His vote drew a scathing comment from Kurt Fritts, the executive director of Washington Conservation Voters. Environmental groups have made the bill one of their top four priorities for the session.
“Rep. Jim Dunn should be ashamed of voting against a bill that is good for our farms and our children,” Fritts said in a statement. “When every member of the House votes for a bill like this one, and Jim Dunn doesn’t, he makes clear that his votes are cast without thought or reason. He owes an explanation to the people of the 17th District.”
Asked about his vote, Dunn said he opposes state mandates on local school districts. “Promote, don’t demand,” he said.
On Monday, Dunn once again cast the lone vote on the House floor, this time on a popular bill to fight criminal gang activity. The bill passed 94-1.
The reasons for Dunn’s votes may often be incomprehensible, but he does feel passionate about some issues, including providing pay equity for part-time college faculty members.
“One of my main drivers is those who receive the lowest pay,” he said. “Part-time faculty members work three jobs, make $14,000 a year and get no benefits. It’s criminal that the state does that to balance its budget.”
Hard feelings
Dunn’s relationship to the caucus that stripped him of his committee assignments is strained.
“I caucus with them,” he said. “I state my arguments. There are people who agree and people who don’t.”
Rumors about Dunn’s alleged boorish behavior around women are rife in Olympia.
“When I went in to talk to leadership, they had a stack of papers several inches high,” he said. But he said caucus leaders didn’t tell him what was in that stack.
Every rumor he’s heard about himself, he said, “is just flat not true.”
His wife of 42 years, Joan Dunn, has stood by him, he said. “She’s really mad at the leadership.”
He added: “I don’t keep anything from my wife.”
When House Republican Leader Richard DeBolt took away Dunn’s committee assignments and travel reimbursement privileges, he said he wanted evidence Dunn’s behavior had changed and suggested he get sensitivity counseling.
That hasn’t happened.
“We haven’t come to the conclusion of who is going to pay for it,” Dunn said. He looked into it, he said. “It’s terrifically expensive. I can’t afford it.”
Dunn is retired but earns $41,280 as a state legislator.
So what has he done to change his behavior? Stopped drinking, he said.
“Because of the meds I’m taking, I don’t drink at all,” Dunn said. A diabetic, he’s taking new drugs to lower his cholesterol and control his blood-sugar levels.
So was it the drinking that prompted him to make that remark to a legislative staffer?
“No, I didn’t have to be drunk to say what I said in jest, and in sarcasm,” Dunn said. “That was Jim Dunn being Jim Dunn. I apologized that night.”
He believed at the time and still believes that the disciplinary action was politically motivated, led by Democrats, and aimed at getting him to give up his seat.
DeBolt has denied it. He says the decision to discipline Dunn was a unanimous one made by the Republican caucus leadership and that Dunn could still redeem himself by showing that he has changed his behavior.
But Dunn said he doesn’t know how he is supposed to show caucus leaders that he has cleaned up his act. “How do I prove it to them? They haven’t talked to anyone down south.”
“A lot of people who are criticizing Dunn are people who have never contacted us,” said Mike Wallin, Dunn’s legislative assistant.
That said, Dunn still hasn’t decided whether to run for a third term. He has raised no money for a re-election campaign.
He’s had a long run. He served from 1996 through 2002, was defeated by Wallace in 2002, and regained his seat in 2004. In 2006 he narrowly defeated Democrat Pat Campbell after Campbell staged a Democratic primary upset of Jack Burkman, who had the endorsement of the state’s Democratic establishment.
This year Dunn would have opposition in the Republican primary from Joseph James, a political newcomer, and would likely face Tim Probst, a work force development director with a long list of endorsements, in the general election.
“We’re going to wait until after session. I’m keeping my options totally open,” Dunn said. The deciding factors, he said, will be his family’s wishes and the desires of his supporters. “I have an ever-increasing circle of friends that are upset about what happened.”
If he does run, he said, he’s not worried about having a well-funded Democratic opponent.
“I’ve had it before and I’ll have it again. They think I’m the weakest target and they always have.”
Kathie Durbin can be reached in The Columbian’s Olympia bureau at kathie.durbin@columbian.com or 360-586-2437.