PORT ANGELES – The just-concluded session of the state Legislature was a great one, Rep. Lynn Kessler told a Port Angeles Regional Chamber of Commerce audience Monday.
“It was the best session I’ve ever seen,” said Kessler, D-Hoquiam and House majority leader, the No. 2 position among Democrats in the lower chamber.
Kessler, Rep. Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim, and Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, represent the 24th District, which includes Clallam and Jefferson counties and a third of Grays Harbor County.
Monday’s noontime chamber gathering was relocated from its normal weekly gathering place at the Port Angeles CrabHouse Restaurant to the Elks Naval Lodge.
Kessler was keynote speaker in her first North Olympic Peninsula appearance since the Legislature adjourned its 2007 session April 22.
Lawmakers, Kessler said, finally were able to address numerous pent-up needs for children, families, teachers and state employees after a four-year “free fall” caused by the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
They were playing catch-up with $5 billion worth of unfunded needs, she said.
