Mike Padden

Dear Friends and Neighbors, This interim (the time between legislative sessions) has been very busy. We have made major strides in bringing attention to issues ranging from impaired driving and the need to increase public safety to human trafficking, the separation of powers and open government. Please keep reading for...

Dear Friends and Neighbors, People who want to provide testimony to legislative committees must either send something in writing, or make the long trip to Olympia and speak in person. Tomorrow morning our Senate Law and Justice Committee will conduct the first real demonstration of what I hope will become...

This Friday the Senate Law and Justice Committee will make history by letting three people offer testimony without having to travel to the Capitol. Sen. Mike Padden, committee chair, said the 8 a.m. work session will offer the first real test of videoconferencing technology he hopes to use more during...

Dear Friends and Neighbors, It was almost exactly a year ago that I first invited people from our legislative district to join me, over coffee, and talk about issues of concern to them. Those meetings in mid-November 2013 were in Greenacres and Liberty Lake; the response was so positive that...

Sen. Mike Padden said he will remember state Rep. Roger Freeman for the courage he showed in being an outspoken defender of life and battling the cancer that claimed the first-term Democratic lawmaker’s life earlier today. Freeman, of Federal Way, was 48. “He was an outstanding person with such a...

Click on the image to view the Senate Law and Justice Committee’s Oct. 2 work session, in the Spokane Valley City Council chambers.

Sen. Mike Padden invites residents of the 4th Legislative District to join him for coffee and conversation on Wednesday, Nov. 12 in Millwood. From 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. that day, Padden will be at the Rocket Bakery, 3315 N. Argonne Rd., to meet one-on-one with the people he serves....

Click on the text below to read the full column by Sen. Padden.