Mike Padden

This continues to be one of the busier interims (the months between legislative sessions) we have seen in recent years. Court cases continue to be big news, with the public challenging the way the majority in Olympia addressed raiding the state’s rainy day fund, properly enacting initiatives, funding local transportation...

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Our legislative session is over, but we are still dealing with its aftermath. One of the most troubling things we saw this year was the new majority’s disregard for the rules and procedures laid out by the state constitution. I was among the parties to a lawsuit challenging the Legislature’s...

OLYMPIA — Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley, offered the following reaction to a ruling Friday in Thurston County Superior Court sending Initiative 940 to the November ballot. Padden was among the plaintiffs in Eyman v. Wyman, which maintains the Legislature disregarded the constitution this year by amending the initiative without...

A week ago I traveled to Olympia for the signing of two bills I sponsored. One bill concerned the use of body cameras for law enforcement and the other dealt with pretrial release conditions that trial court judges may impose. There are additional details about both bills later in this...

The people’s right to pass initiatives is guaranteed by the state constitution. But this right is under attack in the Legislature. In this video I explain the threat and what we are doing about it. As seen on Facebook

Measures would clarify rules on body-cam use and restore judges’ ability to protect the public from drunk drivers and other potentially dangerous offenders awaiting trial Today Sen. Mike Padden joined the governor, members of law enforcement and concerned citizens at a ceremony at the Capitol where two of his public-safety...

The 2018 legislative session is over. The 60-day session ended on time and with the most bills (317) passed since 2008. Of course, as you know, quantity does not always equal quality, and that was certainly not the case this year. If I could sum up this session in one...

One of my chief frustrations this session was the way the Majority seemed determined to twist and torture – and sometimes completely circumvent – the constitution of the state in order to get its way. A key example of this was the Legislature’s response to Initiative 940 on police use...