Creating legislative awareness of business issues in Washington State

This is the best of times and the worst of times for representatives of the business community to hope to raise awareness among legislators about how to be more tuned in to the needs of business.

By Mike Flynn http://www.emikeflynn.com/

It’s the worst of times because it would seem unlikely that a 2009 Legislature in which both houses are tightly under the control of Democrats and faced with growing needs of traditional Democrat constituencies in a shrinking economy might have little time to offer an ear to business representatives.

But Erin McCallum, president of Enterprise Washington, thinks it may be the best of times to help lawmakers understand the ties between the health of the private sector and the needs of those whose jobs depend on the state’s economic vitality.

And she wants to help business leaders be better educated about the extent to which the legislators are supportive or not of those business-related issues, which are frequently employee-important issues as well. That way they’ll be better able to respond appropriately when incumbents come asking for re-election support.

The organization McCallum guides is seeking to raise the understanding of business leaders in "how to better play the political system" while making legislators both more aware of why business’s interests matter and that business leaders are going to become more politically savvy on how to look after those interests.

McCallum is convinced "the business community in Washington State has been left behind by other special-interest groups in learning how to navigate the political landscape.

"As a result," she says, "business interests aren’t very well represented in the ranks of legislators."

Basically, Enterprise Seattle is about tracking how well legislators’ records match the complexion of their districts, and educating business leaders in the results.

McCallum’s background is as a non-profit development professional, but she also was involved in some high-visibility U.S. Senate campaigns, including serving as finance director during the initial Senate campaign of Bill Fritz, the Tennessee Republican who won that election and went on to become majority leader.

Enterprise Washington is fresh from its first election in which it took a hand in four races in which their research indicated the elected legislators’ voting records on issues important to the business community were out of sync with the attitudes of the district itself.

In three of the four cases (one Democrat and two Republicans), the candidates Enterprise Washington supported won. That included the Senate Second District (Southern Pierce and Northern Thurston counties), where they selected Republican Randi Becker to run against, and unseat, Democrat Helen Rasmussen.

While her organization prepares to set about tracking the voting pattern of lawmakers in the forthcoming legislative session, and match that with research on the complexion of their districts in support of business-related issues, McCallum is on the circuit with as many groups as she can reach to explain what Enterprise Washington is about.

She works closely with the Association of Washington Business and an array of business organizations and chambers of commerce who do their own tracking of legislative voting records.

AWB President Don Brunell emphasizes that McCallum’s group isn’t seeking to displace the personal relationship that business lobbyists have with lawmakers, but concedes that it’s important that a business relationship come to parallel the personal relations.

In addition to educating business executives around the state with policy briefings, Enterprise Washington will seek to ferret out high-quality candidates in districts where lawmakers may be vulnerable because their voting is not in harmony with their district.

McCallum emphasizes this isn’t about electing more Republicans to the Legislature. There are a number of Democratic districts in which it would be logical to seek out and support a Democrat whose attitudes toward business better fitted the district.

"While Washington State is very much a Democratic-leaning state, it’s fascinating to look at the research that shows some Democratic areas recognize the importance of the private sector’s needs and the role the economy plays in quality-of-life issues, and want those supported" McCallum says.

(Flynn’s Harp will take Thanksgiving Week off)

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