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Raised by a Kelso widow during the Great Depression, Sid Snyder relied on hard work to overcome his humble beginnings and become an enterprising Across the Aisles: Across grocery store owner, pioneering bank founder, successful real-estate investor, and one of the most respected lawmakers in Washington state history. He began his Capitol career in 1949 with a patronage job as an elevator operator and retired as Senate majority leader in 2002, the same year he was honored as the national legislator of the year. Today, two roads Groceries in Life Remarkable Snyder’s Sid are named after Snyder, one in Olympia leading into the Capitol Campus and one in his hometown of Long Beach. To me, one person is the ultimate standard by which I measure political ability. He did it all while helping everyone with whom he worked, and more importantly, without hurting anyone. Every politician could and should learn from the best all-around politician in my memory. Had I known Sid Snyder earlier, I might have been a better man. — Former Senator R ay Moore No one worked harder than Sid Snyder. [He] left the great state of Washington & a far better place than when he found it. He’s a man who understands Government the institution and how it works at its best. When he was in office, he was considered in the highest regard. He’s still considered the same. — Former Governor Chris Gregoire Sid was the best legislative leader I ever served under. I would have followed him into hell [and] I would have been perfectly happy working under him at Oral History Program Washington State Legislature Sid’s Market. — Longtime state legislator Ken Jacobsen Across the Aisles Sid was that kind of leadership that was passed on from Scoop and Maggie. We will all always remember the man from Southwest Washington and what he did Sid Snyder’s Remarkable Life in Groceries Government for our state. And we will all try to emulate him in the future. & — United States Senator M aria Cantwell BY JEFF BURLINGAME ISBN 978-1-889320-28-1 $25.00 LEGACY PROJECT LEGACY PROJECT Washington State Legislature Oral History Program Across the Aisles Sid Snyder’s Remarkable Life in Groceries & Government BY JEFF BURLINGAME Edited by John C. Hughes LEGACY PROJECT Washington State Legislature Oral History Program First Edition Copyright © 2013 Washington State Legacy Project Offi ce of the Secretary of State All rights reserved. ISBN 978-1-889320-28-1 Front cover photo: Louie Balukoff Book design by Kathryn E. Campbell Printed in the United States of America by Gorham Printing, Centralia, Washington Th is project is a partnership of the Secretary of State’s Legacy Project, the Washington State Heritage Center and the Legislative Oral History Program. Special thanks to Tom Hoemann and Marty Brown. For Lisa, Tierney and Grayson. iii CONTENTS Prologue . vii 1 Hell in a Handbasket . 1 2 Little Chicago . 5 3 Bette . 21 4 Olympia Fever . 37 5 “A Portly Grocer” . 49 6 Changing Chambers . 61 7 Sedentary S.O.B. 79 8 Senator . 93 9 A Whim and a Prayer . 109 10 Sine Die . 129 Oral History . 135 Notes . 235 Bibliography . 241 Acknowledgments . 243 Donors . 244 Index . 248 About the Author . 254 v Sid Snyder’s 1997 resignation made front-page headlines in newspapers across the state, including the Willapa Harbor Herald, whose article was written by Jeff Burlingame, the author of Snyder’s biography. PROLOGUE It was mid-afternoon on a typically blustery late-January day when Sid Snyder’s phone rang. Outside the home’s big windows, over the grassy dunes, the great gray Pacifi c rolled ashore on an empty Southwest Washington beach. Inside, seated at a table—and in the midst of the third of what would be dozens of lengthy interview sessions for this book—Sid decided to let the phone ring. Bette, standing in the kitchen and closer to the phone anyway, fi elded the call in a matter-of-fact manner that sug- gested she had done this before. “Sid’s busy right now. Who is calling?” It was a local woman with a concern. She needed Sid’s help. Yes, frequently to her chagrin, Bette had done this before. A decade ear- lier, when Sid was majority leader of the Washington State Senate, calls such as this were a daily occurrence—and not just one a day. “Got a problem? Call Sid!” was the mantra of those Sid had represented during his 50-some years of public service. He relished that reputation. Bette, well, sometimes not so much. “When I see people hanging on his every word and he deludes himself and gets that dedicated look, I smile politely, keep my evil thoughts to myself and descend into a trancelike state,” she once wrote. “Sometimes my gag refl ex kicks in, and I oft en feel justifi ed to commit a selfi sh act or make a caustic comment—with careless disregard for his image. Of course, I am only fantasizing and I would never do that in word or deed, so I retain my subservient attitude and stand aside.” Bette has a natural gift for satire— and the best satire is tinged with truth. Sid always said he would have been lost without her rudder. And her wry sense of humor. Bette, anything but subservient, bit her tongue with this caller, too, politely off ering to relay the message. She did so, also matter-of-factly. vii viii ACROSS THE AISLES: Sid Snyder’s Remarkable Life in Groceries & Government Th e caller was troubled by the stance a lawmaker was taking on what she considered a crucial piece of legislation. She had a problem. She called Sid. “I’ll make a call,” Sid assured his wife. Later that day, he did. In a week, the legislation the caller hoped would pass passed. And the legislator in question voted for it, exactly what the caller had desired. In most instances, assuming a causal relationship between Sid’s call and the legislator’s vote would be a stretch. But though he was 10 years removed from Olympia, Sid still wielded considerable power there. When he reached out, it meant something. Th is caller knew that. What the caller likely did not know—though perhaps she did—was that Sid had never truly left the Capitol behind. He may have visited less than a handful of times since his 2002 midterm resignation, but he still knew the game and its players. During the creation of this book, Sid consistently referred to the Legislature in the fi rst person, as in “When we vote on the budget…” and “Our staff is fantastic.” Asked about his choice of pronouns, Sid would off er, “I’m still there in spirit.” Walk the marbled halls of the domed Legislative Building—mailing address: 416 Sid Snyder Avenue SW—and talk with the employees inside. When you do, it quickly becomes clear: Never were truer words spoken. “Gosh, I have a lot of great stories about Sid,” an informa- tion clerk once told me. “Got a day or two?” Sid’s health steadily declined during the year we spent working on this book. Mark Twain once observed that “we” should be reserved for kings and people with tapeworms. But I say “we” because it is the pronoun that fi ts. Sid was always there, not just in spirit but as an active participant in this book’s creation. He was well-prepared (and well-groomed!) for each interview session, and he always arrived with historical articles and photos he recently had uncovered. Most times, he also came with a mental list of people who needed to be called in order to capture his “complete” story. At least once during every visit I made to Long Beach, Bette would pull me aside and say, “I wish you would have known him in his prime.” My reply never wavered: “I have known Sid for 15 years, and he is as sharp now as PROLOGUE ix he was when I fi rst met him.” I was not just being polite. Even in his mid- 80s, Sid could recall vital vote counts from 40 years earlier as eff ortlessly as most people recite nursery rhymes from their childhood. He also knew which way individual legislators had voted on those bills of import. “Be sure to check the Journal to see if I got that count right,” he would say. I did what he told me to do, for a while at least. Th en, aft er Sid had nailed sev- eral complicated and obscure particulars, I learned that lift ing those heavy volumes off the State Library shelves was no longer necessary. Trusting Sid was easier, more enjoyable, and far less taxing on body and mind. Those 15 years I had known Sid began with a baptism by fi re. His headline-grabbing resignation in April 1997 occurred during my sixth day as a reporter at the weekly Willapa Harbor Herald in Raymond. Pacifi c County’s newspaper of record also happened to be sited smack in the middle of Sid Country—the 19th Legislative District. Th e fear that ran through my beginner’s mind when my boss pulled me aside fi rst thing Monday morning and told me what Sid had done Saturday night—and that the story was mine—was enormous. I did not have to ask “Sid who?” but name recognition was about the extent of my knowl- edge of one of the state’s most infl uential citizen-politicians. I spent most of the day readying questions before calling Sid at his grocery store.