We’ve written a lot about state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-10, Camano), the state senate’s transportation chair. She’s the one who: tried to take away Seattle’s local permitting authority on major transportation projects; tried to open up bus lanes and the bus tunnel to private charter buses; kept stimulus money away from Seattle; killed a local option for transit funding; and—non-transportation related, but a doozey—surprised the Democrats by voting against the budget at the last minute, forcing her Democratic colleague Sen. Claudia Kauffman (D-47, Southeast King County)—who’s from a tough swing district—to vote for it when the caucus plan had been to give Kauffman a bye.
Here’s the latest Sen. Haugen update: Washington Conservation Voters, the state’s lead environmental advocacy group down in Olympia, gave the Democratic leader a “green dud,” for her 40 percent voting record on environmental issues. WCV’s biggest gripe was Sen. Haugen’s behind-the-scenes effort to kill the storm water clean up bill.
Here’s WCV’s full scorecard, which also includes their legislators of the year: State Rep. John McCoy (D-38, Everett, Marysville, Tulalip), for his efforts to prevent the legislature from gutting the voter-approved alternative energy initiative; and Seattle-area State Rep. Sharon Nelson (D-34, W. Seattle, Vashon, Maury, and Burien). WCV gives Nelson, who’s taking an open state senate seat next year, props for: securing money to buy a Maury Island strip mine from Glacier Northwest so the land can be preserved and converted to a park; for heading up the Blue-Green alliance (the ad hoc caucus of labor and environmental Democrats); and for leading the (losing) fight for the stormwater cleanup money.
