It being election and fund raising season, I've had the chance to mingle with my Washington State senators and lobby them on filibuster reform. Patty wants to fix things, but Maria stonewalled me the whole way. If you live in Washington state, thank and encourage Senator Murray, and intensely lobby Maria. More after the jump.
I sat one seat away from Senator Murray at a fundraiser for Washington Conservation Voters about a week ago, so I had the chance for talking with Patty extensively about filibuster reform. She is one frustrated senator! She very emphatically said that the only thing she'll be working on between the election and the first day of session is working on and lining up support for filibuster reform. She said that she will be pushing leadership, which she is a part of, to make filibuster reform a priority. It's unclear how far they'll go into reforming it, what with the more entrenched and older senators not seeing a problem that needs fixing, but she is going to push as hard as she can.
A few days later I was a fundraiser for Harry Reid at private residence with Senator Cantwell as one of the draws. (Senator Reid sure sticks to his script. Any question he got that was similar to one he got at Netroots Nation '10 was answered in the same way. I'm learning a lot about the corner offense in basketball and spitballs in baseball.)
Senator Cantwell's problem with filibuster reform seems to be that she used the filibuster to prevent drilling in ANWR. She had the backing of only Reid when started her fight to preserve ANWR from drilling. Indeed, when she introduced Senator Reid that evening, she gave the story of how she managed to prevent drilling in ANWR using the filibuster and Harry's help (it was an environmental audience).
When I started lobbying Senator Cantwell on filibuster reform, she started off acting like it couldn't technically be done. When I showed some knowledge about the matter (thanks, KagroX!), she changed tack and started obfuscating about all the things unanimous consent is used for. I cut to the chase and simply asked if, when it came to a party vote on the first day of the session, would she support filibuster reform? Her reply was that without the filibuster, she wouldn't have been able to stop drilling in ANWR, and that was the end of the conversation.
Senator Cantwell is clearly part of the problem. If you live in Washington, please let Senator Cantwell know that you expect her to support filibuster reform on the first day of the 2011 session. I'll trade ANWR for all the other good things, like addressing climate change, that can only occur with the filibuster gone or weakened.