After ‘brutal sessions,’ in Olympia, some want change

Todd Donovan, a political science professor at Western Washington University, is one of those critics. Donovan said on the one hand, a part-time legislature like Washington’s, which pays lawmakers only about $67,000 a year, could encourage people to maintain other jobs — and lead to more turnover.  

“If you want expertise and you want people sticking around and you want them having the capacity to govern, you’d maybe want a higher salary, longer sessions, more staff for your legislators,” Donovan said. “If you have this sort of ideal that you want frequent turnover in office and new people, then having a churn of people being able to serve in office, then maybe you don’t want it to be such a high-paid position.”