During eight years in the Legislature, Rep. Deb Wallace has confronted a few moments of truth.
One came Feb. 23, when the fate of a hotly contested bill to allow the state’s major universities to set their own undergraduate tuition rates landed on her plate.
Senate Bill 6562 had passed the Senate 29-19. University presidents said they needed tuition-setting authority to give them more flexibility in writing their budgets. Student organizations warned that ceding authority to unelected administrators could shut them out of the process.
Now the bill was before the House Higher Education Committee, which Wallace chairs.
Wallace opposed the bill. Her logic was simple: Elected legislators are accountable to the public. University presidents are not.
She scolded university leaders for exaggerating the depth of the cuts inflicted on the state’s universities during the state’s current budget crisis.
Then she used the political muscle of her chairmanship to block a vote on the bill in her committee. That stopped it from advancing to the House floor — and killed it for the 2010 session.
“This job has a lot of pressure,” she said. “It’s not for the faint of heart or the weak-kneed.”
As state budget negotiators sought common ground this week on a plan to close a $2.8 billion budget gap, Wallace reflected on four terms representing Clark County’s 17th Legislative District. She will not seek a fifth.
Wallace, 52, made that decision even before she plunged into the 3rd Congressional District contest in December after U.S. Rep. Brian Baird announced he would not seek re-election.
She ended her congressional campaign two months later, saying she could not raise enough money to be a viable candidate while fulfilling her legislative responsibilities.
She has no regrets.
Two years ago, Wallace approached Monica Stonier, a Vancouver schoolteacher and Democratic activist, and asked if she would be interested in running to succeed her. At the time, Wallace was considering making a 2012 run for the U.S. Senate.
When the 3rd District seat opened, Wallace moved up her plans.
“Monica, I felt, was ready to step in,” she said. “I had recycled my letterhead, I had given her my word I would not run.”
And Deb Wallace isn’t one to break her word.
Transportation advocate
Wallace is married to retired Air Force pilot John Wallace and has three grown children, including son Matt, who has muscular dystrophy.
She entered the Legislature with an extensive background in transportation and economic development and a desire to improve both in Clark County.
She’s proud of the fact that the Washington Department of Transportation, her former employer, is now considered a national leader in fiscal and project accountability.
Wallace soon earned a reputation in Olympia as a moderate Democrat — “the person most likely to cross party lines in my votes,” she said.
Her voting record, she says, reflects the nature of the 17th, a swing district encompassing east Vancouver and part of unincorporated Clark County that was solidly Republican before she unseated Rep. Jim Dunn in 2002.
She discovered that some liberal Democrats would refuse to support her bills because they disagreed with her voting record.
“I learned that sometimes it’s important not to have my name on things,” she said. “I would try to have my ideas put in other people’s bills.”
Wallace has generally supported state spending limits and opposed tax increases. An exception has been her strong support for two boosts in the state gas tax to fund needed transportation projects in Clark County and statewide.
She cast her first public vote for a gas tax increase in 2003, just weeks into her first term.
In 2005, Wallace confronted Sen. Ed Murray, chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee, over the dearth of Clark County projects in an $8 billion list of projects to be paid for with a 9.5-cent gas-tax increase.
“I said that was unacceptable,” she recalled. In the 17th District, explosive growth had spawned daily traffic snarls at major intersections and freeway interchanges.
Wallace threatened to vote against the bill. Largely through her efforts, the final package included $244 million for 13 projects in Clark County. It passed on a bipartisan vote and survived a referendum challenge.
She’s also proud of her work on legislation to curb identity theft and ban or restrict the sale of methamphetamine precursor drugs.
In 2007, Wallace jumped at the chance to chair of the Higher Education Committee. She saw it as an opportunity to advance economic development by strengthening college and vocational education.
She’s also pleased with her service on the Joint Legislative Audit Review Committee, which conducts audits of state agencies to hold them accountable and has proposed a number of money-saving reforms.
On the home front, Wallace is known for her constituent work. She holds frequent meetings in her district and is an advocate for the rights of the disabled.
She’s not afraid to change her mind, as she did this year when Vancouver businesses came out against her bill to end the non-resident sales tax exemption. She withdrew the bill, but the Legislature revived it as a way to help balance the budget.
Wallace said she still doesn’t know how she’ll vote on the final budget and revenue bill, which could come up for a vote this weekend. Given the state’s continuing budget crisis, she has not ruled out a vote in favor of new taxes.
“We have made $5 billion worth of cuts in three years,” she said. “It will depend on what is in the mix.”
Ready to fight
On March 9, Wallace’s House colleagues from both sides of the aisle paid tribute to her on the House floor.
“Your constituents feel about you like many talk about their own families: that you are there for them, ready to fight for them,” said Rep. Tim Probst, Wallace’s fellow 17th District representative.
Rep. Norma Smith, R-Clinton, recalled how Wallace welcomed her when she arrived in Olympia as a freshman six years ago, feeling like “a deer in the headlights.”
“We sat in her office and shared experiences of being married to military aviators and our love of country,” she said. “We can disagree on issues, but rarely about the goal.”
Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, recalled that shortly after he and Wallace were elected to the Legislature, they were contacted by some residents of the Hockinson area who were unhappy about a timber-related issue.
Not only did Wallace attend their meeting, she also asked Orcutt, a professional forester, to accompany her on a field trip and give her a briefing.
“When all was said and done, Deb really thanked me for teaching her about forestry and timber harvests,” Orcutt said. “Then she did the exact opposite of what I wanted her to do. But in a lot of ways that is the mark of a good legislator. They gather knowledge to help them make a decision.”
Rep. Mike Sells, D-Snohomish County, sits beside Wallace as vice chairman of the Higher Education Committee. He recalled getting shut down by Wallace last year, then getting a glimpse of her sense of humor.
Western Washington University had decided to get rid of its underperforming football team and use the money to support academic programs. Sells objected, and introduced a bill to rescind the school’s decision.
Wallace refused even to give the bill a hearing.
A few days later she showed up on the floor of the House wearing a T-shirt that read “The Evergreen State College football: Undefeated since 1967.”
The point?
Evergreen has never had a football team.
