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John O’Brien, and WA Legislature, adjourn

John L. O'Brien
John L. O’Brien

The Washington Legislature is adjourning today, on schedule. That will be a subject of discussion, but for many in Washington politics, it will be secondary: John L. O’Brien, who entered that body in 1939 and left it in 1993, died today in Seattle.

We never met O’Brien, but sometimes felt as if we had. We’ve spent a fair amount of time in the O’Brien Building, across the way from the Statehouse, where House legislative offices and meeting rooms are located. And one of the first books we read on Washington government was the useful Speaker of the House: The Political Career and Times of John L. O’Brien, by Daniel Jack Chasan.

O’Brien’s fingerprints are all over Washington government and policy. Inevitably: He was House speaker for four terms, and served in the legislature longer than anyone else in Washington history (and, for a time, held that record nationally, too).

More commentary available at the David Postman blog.

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