A seasoned legislator looks to help newcomers navigate the complex world of lawmaking

After gavels fell in roughly a dozen state legislatures this week, new and returning members raised their right hands to take the oath of office for the new term. 

It’s a scene that will play out over the next month in statehouses across the country as legislatures open their 2024 legislative sessions. And it is one that is all too familiar to Karen Keiser, who will be sworn in for her 28th term in the Washington Legislature next week.

For the next 60 days, Keiser will be hard at work debating and voting on bills. It seems like a straightforward process: a bill is introduced, assigned to a committee, debated, possibly amended, voted on by both chambers and then sent to the governor. But bills rarely follow a smooth path to enactment. State legislators come from all walks of life and bring with them their own priorities, agendas, alliances and personalities.

For a newly elected official, navigating a complex web of committee meetings, procedures and bills, all while managing relationships with colleagues, staff and external groups, can be quite overwhelming.

Keiser, who is 76, wants to make the experience less daunting and offers some advice for freshmen legislators in a new book, Getting Elected is the Easy Part: Working and Winning in the State Legislature. Among her nuggets of advice, Keiser discusses how new members can turn campaign promises into legislation; how to build trust with other legislators; balancing work and family life; and navigating issues like sexual discrimination and diversity, equity and inclusion.

The Democrat was first elected to the Washington House of Representatives in 1996, then made the jump to the state Senate in 2001, where she is now president pro tempore, presiding over the body when Lt. Gov. Denny Heck is unavailable.

Before first running for office, Keiser had been a reporter and communications director for the local chapter of the AFL-CIO. She eventually got her feet under her and rose to chair the Health and Long Term Care Committee and the Labor and Commerce Committee, where she helped implement the Affordable Care Act, passed a paid family and medical leave program, and set a permanent cap on insulin costs.

Keiser sat down with Route Fifty for a wide-ranging discussion about getting started in the state legislature, how to pass bills in those early days, changing relations between the states and the federal government, and much more.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

Route Fifty: I'm curious about your first day of orientation, when you walked into the chamber for the first time. What was that like?

Karen Keiser: It was awesome. The marble chambers are heady, and the protocols and ceremonies are so impressive. The first couple of weeks, you're just in awe of the whole institutional tradition; it's really quite wonderful. My seatmate who was the state senator, at the time, told me … everybody here will treat you like a 10. It was a fair warning, because people suck up, so you need to make sure you realize what's going on and don't just take it at face value.

Route Fifty: How did you go about getting your bearings when you were first elected? Were you leaning on colleagues or staff?

Keiser: Back then they didn't have any kind of mentoring program or orientation programs or anything. It was just a cold-water bath; you're thrown in, and you learn by doing for the most part. I will say my seatmate, her name was Julia Patterson, was helpful and very supportive, and that was wonderful.

Route Fifty: It's interesting that there's no orientation for new members. How do you know where to start, because there's committees and there's bills and all sorts?

Keiser: I think our staff at the state legislature in Washington state is incredible. We have a professional staff that is first rate, just wonderful. They give you strong guidance in terms of what will stand the legal test that you need. Our professional staff is absolutely the backbone I depend on in terms of getting laws developed that will stand the test of time and be successful.

Route Fifty: Obviously, it's not a 9-5 job. What were the biggest things that surprised you, particularly around the workload, when you first were in office?

Keiser: I was pretty lucky to be elected when the Democrats were in the minority, because you have a lot less work to do in the minority. You have a lot more learning to do, and you have time to listen and learn and watch, because you're not really a player, especially as a young new legislator. It took me a while to get a grip. We were in a time back then when the Republicans really were not interested in any collaboration with Democrats. It's kind of like what is going on right now in Congress. They just wanted their own way, and they took it. It wasn't a time where we could make a lot of progress. It was more of a time to make fiery floor speeches, and not much else.

Route Fifty: And did you do that?

Keiser: Yes. For a while, I thought that was my job. But it isn't getting to where you want to go, which is to make change. Why serve if you're just upholding the status quo?

Route Fifty: What did you do? Did you just bide your time and wait for things to shift, for the Democrats to get into the majority?

Keiser: Well, I actually got one bill passed under the Republican majority that I was pleased about. It was a consumer protection bill, which everybody actually agreed to. So that was encouraging, and it wasn't my intention to just stop there. So when we did get in the majority, and that actually happened for me when I got to the Senate … I saw a real opportunity to provide some leadership and make some progress.

Route Fifty: There's a ton of things that you could work on, but as a state legislator, you can't do them all because you're only one person. How did you go about finding the issues that you wanted to champion, or really work on? How did that process work for you?

Keiser: I think [it was] a combination of personal life experiences and my professional work, which included working for the state AFL-CIO. When I had my family, and we had a couple of health care issues and health care scares, I saw that those issues were really tied up with your work, because a work-life balance is hard to accomplish when you have family obligations and problems. My worldview coalesced around what's the intersection between your work life and your personal or family life, and how can we make that intersection stronger and more supportive, as opposed to a challenge and problematic?

Route Fifty: One of the big issues you’ve worked on is health care, particularly implementing the Affordable Care Act, which was a massive national debate. What are your memories of that time?

Keiser: Through [the National Conference of State Legislatures], I was on a health care committee [made up of] several legislators from other states. We would do a conference call monthly and touch base with what issues were developing. This is before 2009 [when the Affordable Care Act passed]. What we had done in the two or three years prior to the Affordable Care Act passing was kind of prepare the ground for implementation, because we had knowledge of the different possible outcomes of the law. 

When it did pass, the next job was to set up a state exchange. My goal for that was to make it a bipartisan bill, so that it would stay and wouldn't get repealed when the Republicans got back in session. It’s a good thing we did, because two years later, they were back. It was close, I think we got two or three Republican votes. But it was bipartisan and got implemented successfully. And it's really been very helpful.

Route Fifty: On a lot of these other issues that you work on in health care and labor, whether it's paid family leave or whatever else, do you feel as though things are moving forward, changing, getting better?

Keiser: I don't think it is ideal, but I think we have in some of our more active states made things better. For instance, having access to health care insurance when you don't get it from your employer, and you don't qualify for Medicaid is a tough goal. But it's not as hard in our state as it is in other states. It is really helpful to our families who need to have paid family and medical leave. During the pandemic, it was quite a crisis, and having the ability to take time off with partial wage replacement to care for a sick family member or for yourself is extraordinarily important to have.

We have a minimum of six paid sick days a year for all workers as well, and that is another incredibly important quality of life measure for people who don't have a union contract or don't have a stable employment situation. All of those things make work lives better, and family lives better, and I'm really happy about that. What's really important is we also have a very strong business climate, and we're not anti-business, we are able to work with the business community, and they don't always support us, although we did get support during our paid family and medical leave final bill. So that's been good to have that bipartisan support.

Route Fifty: You've mentioned Congress a couple of times and I'm curious from your perspective as a state legislator: Do you despair of our national leaders? Do you see it as a challenge? If they can't do it, then we're just going to do it? How do you kind of navigate that?

Keiser: If they can't do it, we have to. I would prefer that they get their act together and start functioning as a legislative body instead of a performative body, and maybe that will happen. I do hope so. But right now, Congress is broken. And so it really is up to the states to act to protect their own citizens and residents, because you can't wait and expect a solution from the federal government right now. There are obviously issues we can't touch, like immigration or foreign policy-type things. I really do wish they could collaborate more and get stuff done. But right now, I don't see it.

Route Fifty: Back in the state legislature, obviously you've been around for a while now. How has the job changed? How has being in the state legislature changed?

Keiser: I think we were more of a traditional legislature when I first came in. We've had an incredible influx of young women [of color and different backgrounds], and wonderful new members with really different experiences in their lives and different perspectives on issues. It's been invigorating. It has been an interesting time. And I don't mean that in the Confucian sense, but in that it has been helpful to broaden our knowledge. We've tried to institute an idea of looking at legislation through an equity lens to try to incorporate other people's experiences. Our legislature has become much more responsive to different communities than before, so that's really one notable thing.

Also, though, I think many of the new members come to the legislature now with no legislative background in another body, say a city council or school board. They are kind of naive, [thinking] about changing the world overnight, walking through the doors and saying they can get what they want. Then the realization sets in that they're dealing with 150 other people and it's a little more complicated, it's not going to happen overnight. Some of them become discouraged, which is one of the reasons I wrote the book, because you do have to know that this is a long game.

Route Fifty: I imagine it must be fun to manage their enthusiasm. They come in all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and they want to get it done. That must be kind of cool.

Keiser: It's invigorating. It's wonderful. It makes me happy. And I try to mentor. I don't want to discourage; I want people to be successful.

Route Fifty: What does your mentorship look like when a new member comes to you for advice or guidance? How do you help them out?

Keiser: What I do in the book is share experiences and observations that led me to some of my opinions. I'll do what I can to tell them how it's been for me and what they could maybe think about, and let them know that I'm in support and I will help.

I do that most commonly with new women who come into the legislature, especially when they have children, because that is an extra complication. And sometimes people have health issues, and that is really hard to manage as well. Those are the times when you really do need to be a supportive member, and not just transactional.

Route Fifty: State legislator: Still a good job as far as you're concerned?

Keiser: I do love it, I really do. It doesn't pay very well, but I'm at an age now that that really doesn't matter as much. It is a struggle for many younger members to try and juggle a part-time job and family obligations, including financial obligations. I could not have done it when I was younger if I did not have an employer that allowed me to take unpaid leave to go to the legislature. We did pass a bill to allow public employees to take unpaid leave to serve. That covers a fairly large group of people in public service, whether it's in education or state and local government, so that's been somewhat helpful. But it isn't a job for somebody who doesn't have a good support network, or doesn't have some way to financially survive on a part-time salary.