OLYMPIA — In the final hours of the state Legislature’s special session Tuesday, House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler unveiled a secret that she had kept for about a month:
She will not run for re-election this year, choosing instead to retire from the Legislature.
The Hoquiam Democrat made the announcement in a farewell speech at midnight, which was followed by a standing ovation and expressions of admiration from her colleagues, said those present.
Kessler has represented the 24th District — which includes the North Olympic Peninsula and a portion of Grays Harbor County — in the House of Representatives for 18 years.
During an interview later Tuesday morning, she cited fatigue and health problems exacerbated by a stressful Legislative session — which went into overtime — along with the needs of her family as reasons for her departure.
“I’m retiring. I’m almost 70, for God’s sake,” she said in her speech to her colleagues.
Kessler was diagnosed this session with an irregular heartbeat, which she attributed to high blood pressure. She also came down with pneumonia, which she said she has overcome.
During the interview, Kessler said she had planned on seeking re-election and even raised $7,000 in campaign contributions.
But as the session became more strenuous and her health and family life suffered, she decided to re-evaluate.
“It just kind of struck me that it was time to bow out,” she said.
The decision, which Kessler said she made in early March, remained a fairly well-kept secret, with only a handful of friends and colleagues notified ahead of her formal goodbye on the House floor.
Kessler said House Speaker Frank Chopp didn’t even know until Monday night.
She said she didn’t make the announcement earlier so it wouldn’t get in the way of negotiations between the House and Senate over how the Legislature would fill a $2.8 billion budget deficit.
Kessler said she also wanted to avoid farewell speeches from her colleagues, which typically occur when someone has already made such an announcement.
But those Kessler could not avoid, and she said she was humbled by the response from her fellow lawmakers, Republicans and Democrats alike.
“It was kind of like being at your own funeral,” she joked.
“I didn’t know people liked me that well.”
During her speech, which she said was not rehearsed, Kessler thanked her colleagues, and referred to some of her top issues: domestic-violence prevention, education and bridging the divide between urban and rural districts.
Kessler, who sits on the House’s budget-writing Ways and Means Committee as well as the Rules and Executive Rules committees, has also been a principal advocate for open government.
After her term ends Jan. 9, she said she would like continue to promote education with the state Department of Early Learning.
Feeling a little nervous beforehand, Kessler said she mainly wanted to get through the speech without tearing up.
“The only time I started to get weepy was when I said I would not be running for another term,” she said.
Afterward, she felt mostly relieved.
“I was glad that I wasn’t holding the secret anymore,” Kessler said.
Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, a close friend who also represents the 24th District, said he talked to Kessler about her decision only a few hours before the speech — after hearing a rumor that the session would be her last.
The news from Kessler was hard for Hargrove to hear, but it was also difficult for the majority leader to deliver.
Both failed to hold back tears, Hargrove said.
“It’s going to be hard to take,” he said, adding that the two legislators developed a “tight bond” after working together for nearly two decades.
Hargrove said her standing ovation, which he called “probably the longest and loudest that I’ve ever seen,” was well-deserved.
He described her as a “self-motivated” legislator, and said her ability to work well with the entire Democratic caucus as well as Republicans was key to getting the budget passed during the last day of the special session.
“I don’t know how the Legislature is going to function next year without her,” Hargrove said.
The district’s other state legislator, Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, said Kessler will be “greatly missed.”
“I’ve been in the Legislature for four years and she has been a real mentor for me,” he said.
Van De Wege said she notified him ahead of time, but declined to say when in order to not offend anyone who didn’t know sooner.
Jim Buck, a Republican from Joyce who represented the 24th District alongside Kessler for 12 years before losing to Van De Wege in 2006, said her absence will mean a “leadership gap” for the district.
Even though they disagreed on some issues, he said they both made a “good team” dealing with issues relating to forestry, fisheries and retraining for former timber workers.
“There were a lot of other districts in the state that would kill to have the cooperation like we did,” said Buck, who had lost to Kessler in his first run for the Legislature in 1992.
Both were seeking the House seat vacated by Hargrove as he moved on to the Senate.
Kessler, who had not held elective office before, said she ran for the Legislature 18 years ago to support logging families hurt by the northern spotted owl’s listing as a threatened species.
She said loggers weren’t given a voice in Olympia, which prompted her to help lead the “One Washington” campaign. It advocated for rural districts being given as much say in the Legislature as their urban counterparts.
Kessler now plans to spend her final months in office traveling her district and thanking her constituents. She will also work with other local Democrats on their upcoming races.
And then retirement, she said, will help her get reintroduced to such hometown organizations as the United Way and the Rotary Club.
_________
Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.
