Unions want Hans Dunshee to replace Steve Hobbs in state senate

Published 11:12 pm Saturday, November 14, 2009

Steve Hobbs has a target on his back and two of the state’s most decorated labor unions plan to take aim at it.

Members of the Washington Education Association and the Service Employees International Union don’t want the freshman Democrat from Lake Stevens winning a second term in the state Senate in 2010.

Hobbs crossed them last legislative session by voting for a controversial education reform law and opposing a bill enabling child care center workers to unionize.

Ever since they’ve been seeking a challenger behind whom they can rally.

They may have found their special someone in Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish.

They’ve been courting Dunshee for a while, and this week the veteran lawmaker confirmed he’s weighing the idea, though a decision is not imminent.

It’s been on Dunshee’s mind for some time; he reportedly told Hobbs months ago that he was thinking about the race.

Dunshee, who has spoken with Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, said he thinks Hobbs has alienated enough traditional Democratic supporters to be vulnerable to a Republican challenger in 2010.

“You don’t want to lose that Senate seat,” he said.

If he tries to switch chambers, he must give up a pretty safe House seat and a plum job as chairman of the Capital Budget committee.

“I don’t know if he is serious about it,” Hobbs said this week, without a stitch of stress in his voice. “I’m not focused on getting a new job when 10.2 percent of the people in my district don’t have a job.”

He does know the two unions are serious.

Their members are frustrated as state budget cuts led to pay freezes, layoffs and furloughs. Then their respective legislative agendas got knocked sideways by the Democratic-controlled Legislature.

SEIU leaders are peeved that Hobbs helped torpedo House Bill 1329, which would have swelled the union’s ranks by adding child care center directors and employees.

The bill cleared the House where Dunshee supported it. It died in the Senate where Hobbs opposed it out of concern it hurt more than helped the operators and the bottom line of their facilities.

With teachers, the breaking point came with Hobbs’ vote for House Bill 2261. (Dunshee supported the original bill and opposed its final amended version) This new law is intended, over time, to increase spending in public schools. It also contains lots of items unwanted by the union such as merit pay and new ways of evaluating teachers.

Well before the final vote, union members in Snohomish County delivered an ultimatum to Hobbs and other Democratic lawmakers: Back it and we won’t back you.

The Pilchuck UniServ Council resolved in February to “actively oppose” the re-election of any lawmaker who favored pieces of legislation that evolved into HB 2261. The council represents 4,342 teachers in Everett, Granite Falls, Lake Stevens, Marysville, Monroe, Mukilteo, Skykomish, Snohomish and Sultan education associations.

Such friendly fire is not new for Hobbs.

In 2005, Democratic activists shunned him when he did not drop out of the race for Snohomish County Council after Dave Somers was chosen as the party’s nominee. Somers beat out Hobbs for the job.

A year later, Hobbs and Lillian Kaufer squared off in the primary for the state senate seat. She had the backing of the Senate Democratic Caucus, but he defeated her and went on to unseat incumbent Republican Sen. Dave Schmidt.

Hobbs believes those roiling waters have long passed under the bridge, though others disagree.

Last month, Sen. Karen Kaiser, who steers the caucus political machine and is a past union leader, had her name on the invitation to a Hobbs’ fundraiser in Snohomish. So too did Brown.

“I think the party is comfortable with me,” Hobbs said.

Even with a target on his back.

Political reporter Jerry Cornfield’s blog, The Petri Dish, is at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet. Contact him at 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.