WA lawmaker rejoins Republican caucus after ‘issues’ with leadership caused her to leave

State Rep. Michelle Caldier has returned to the Washington State House Republican Caucus.

Documents obtained by the Gateway through a public records request indicate that Caldier left the caucus last year because she felt leadership was not making adequate accommodations for her as a legislator who is legally blind.

Caldier confirmed that to be the reason in a recent phone call with the Gateway.

She represents the 26th Legislative District, which goes from Gig Harbor to Bremerton and includes parts of Pierce and Kitsap counties.

She said she left the caucus during its reorganization meeting in Spokane on Nov. 17.

“I have very good working relationships with almost every single member in the House,” Caldier told the Gateway in January. “But sometimes there’s issues that come up and you have to take a stand to make a difference.”

She declined to explain the issues that caused her to leave at the time, saying she wanted to keep the matter internal.

House Republican Leader J.T. Wilcox also declined to say what issues caused Caldier to leave the caucus when he spoke to the Gateway in January.

“Michelle’s been a very effective legislator over the years,” he said at the time. “I think in the long run, we’re going to come to a place where everybody’s happy and I’m looking forward to that time.”

Wilcox, of Yelm, had been the House Republican leader since 2018. He announced his resignation from the leadership role in a video April 23.

The same day Caldier returned to the caucus.

In the video Wilcox said his decision to step down was to “make room for new leadership.”

“If you don’t have any turnover in leadership, then you don’t have any opportunity for new people,” Wilcox told the Gateway in a phone interview May 5. “I thought that the fact that I’ve been leader for five years and we’ve got some awfully good new people coming meant that it was the right time to go.”

Rep. Drew Stokesbary of Auburn was elected the new leader of the Washington State House Republicans on April 24.

Caldier said recent meetings with new leadership and Wilcox’s decision to step down led to her decision to return to the caucus.

“Rep. Stokesbary and Rep. (Mike) Steele are willing to sit down with me, the attorney and human resources to get the disability accommodations I need over the interim,” Caldier said.

She said they told her providing her with accommodations is a priority for them.

“They have said they’ll do everything they can to provide me with accommodations and that it will be a top priority,” Caldier said. “And I trust them.”

Asked for comment, Stokesbary said in an emailed statement to the Gateway: “Yes, Michelle has asked to rejoin the House Republican Caucus. She is a fierce advocate for the 26th District and I am glad she’s decided to rejoin the caucus. I hope to find as many ways to support her as are possible, but will defer any further specific comment to her.”

Transportation

Shortly after being elected in 2014 Caldier lost complete sight in her left eye, almost overnight, she said. In 2016 she was diagnosed with glaucoma.

She’s had many surgeries and now wears a prosthesis in her left eye.

With limited vision in her right eye, she can see about a foot in front of her. Anything further than that she cannot see.

Caldier said she’d like to see the caucus allow reimbursements for a private driver. This would ensure she always has a ride and is not stranded on late nights, she said.

“Sometimes discussions go until 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning,” Caldier said.

She budgets $500 a month for a private driver, she said, and a trip to Olympia from Gig Harbor on top of that is about $80.

Before the pandemic, the Chief Clerk’s Office provided Caldier with shuttle transportation to and from a nearby hotel. If she wasn’t staying in a hotel she was rooming with colleagues in Olympia.

Once the pandemic hit, shuttle transportation stopped.

“I started to freak out because I didn’t know what I was going to do,” Caldier told the Gateway.

She said leadership suggested she ask her colleagues for a ride or use a ride-share app.

Uber and Lyft weren’t an option during the pandemic, Caldier said. After COVID-19 restrictions cleared up she said it was hard to find drivers at such late times.

She added that using Uber and Lyft in Gig Harbor is a challenge because drivers do not want to cross the bridge. It’s not covered in their rates, she said.

When her colleagues aren’t available to give her a ride she hires a private driver.

Legislators also attend off-campus events, such as recent rural healthcare tour that took legislators around the state.

She said leadership suggested she fly to Wenatchee from Seattle, hop in a colleague’s car who is a representative in Quincy, travel with him on the tour, fly back to Seattle, then find an Uber to Gig Harbor.

Caldier said she cannot travel through an airport alone without assistance. Instead, she said a taxi service to take her to Bellingham for the rural healthcare tour was more than $2,000.

Who handles accommodations?

Early on when she began losing her vision, Caldier said she was told to go to leadership if she needed anything.

In January of 2021 that changed, and she was supposed to direct concerns to a newly hired caucus human resources employee, she said. She said she was not immediately told that and continued to refer to leadership.

“Everyone in the legislative staff and members are employees of the House of Representatives,” Wilcox told the Gateway. “They are all administratively overseen by the Chief Clerk’s Office and that’s the place accommodations are managed. Those discussions have been going on for many years with the Chief Clerk’s Office.”

The institution is responsible for responding to accommodation requests, not leadership or individual members within the House, Chief Clerk Bernard Dean told the Gateway May 8.

Accommodation requests for staff and members are handled by the House Human Resources Office, which reports to the Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives, he said.

Dean said that previously Caldier had not made accommodation requests to the proper office.

The Chief Clerk’s Office does not handle any accommodation requests related to non-official legislative events, like receptions hosted by various interest groups or organizations, he said.

Caldier is not the first Washington state legislator to be legally blind.

Former Lieutenant Governor Cyrus Habib is blind. He announced in 2020 that he would not run for re-election and that he was entering the Jesuit religious order to become a priest.

Habib is a former Democratic member of the House, who was elected in 2012 to represent the 48th District, including Bellevue, Clyde Hill, Hunts Point, Kirkland, Medina, Redmond, and Yarrow Point. Then he was elected to the Senate in 2014, and he was elected lieutenant governor in 2016.

Caldier said that, in conversations between Habib and Caldier, he told her he had a different experience with accommodations and that his were met.

“It is my understanding that Cyrus was provided a person to walk with him and drive him to work locations,” Caldier said.

Emails the Gateway received as part of a public records request show Caldier reaching out to Wilcox to meet to find appropriate accommodations for her.

One email shows Wilcox responding by informing Caldier he had passed it on to the Chief Clerk’s Office.

On Dec. 16, 2022 an attorney and director of advocacy for Disability Rights Washington, David Carlson, sent Wilcox a letter.

The letter provided details of transportation and communication accommodations Caldier had asked for and not received.

The Gateway met with Caldier May 3 at the Olympia legislative building, where she talked about challenges she faces as a legislator with vision loss.

Caucus documents and communication

Accessing and viewing caucus communications has been an issue, Caldier said.

Inside the Republican caucus room is a large screen that displays bill numbers and other information.

Sometimes presentations are shown on the screen that Caldier said she cannot see.

She’s asked leadership to either print out presentations or convert them into a version compatible with her phone for viewing purposes, but that request has often been ignored or forgotten, Caldier said.

Instead, she nudges her colleagues for further clarification or stands over the shoulder of the person running the presentation.

“If people had to deal with the limitations that I have to deal with, I don’t think they could do this job,” Caldier said.

On the House floor is another big screen to display bill numbers that Caldier said she cannot see.

Shortly after she was elected, she said there was an incident during a voting session where she mixed up bill numbers and voted in a way she did not intend to. She said she doesn’t recall what the vote was for.

“I was listening and mixed up the vote,” Caldier said. “Everybody came over to me and asked why I voted for it ... and I had to say I mixed it up and it would’ve been helpful if I could have seen the bill number.”

She said Wilcox was floor leader at the time and helped her get a personal screen that sits at her seat displaying bill numbers. That screen has been at her seat since 2016.

Wilcox said the screen was already being discussed in the Chief Clerk’s Office and that his conversation with them only sped up the process, if anything.

“Anyone, regardless of what their disability is, should be able to serve. Other than the physical limitations of me not being able to drive, I can do this job,” Caldier said.

She also said that the Microsoft Teams chat feature is used by legislators on the House floor for quick communication, and that she cannot see the icons needed to use it.

Not being able to use the chat feature left Caldier “out of critical, real-time discussions and decision making,” she said.

The Capitol Campus

Caldier said she also faces challenges to getting around the Capitol Campus.

At one point during this past legislative session, three elevators were not working, she said.

Caldier doesn’t use the stairs. She said the marble steps are hard for her to see.

At one point when she discovered elevators were down, she called up to the rostrum and asked them to wait to hold a vote until she could find another way up.

Legislators can only vote if they are physically present.

Security helped her find another elevator, but when she got on the floor she discovered they started without her.

“If I was just even a few seconds later than I was, I would have missed the vote,” Caldier said.

She said her two saving graces are her colleagues on both sides of the aisle who help her when needed and her legislative assistant, who plays a big role in helping Caldier get around campus.

Caldier has memorized most of the legislative building now, but needs her legislative assistant’s help for meetings around the campus.

Sometimes Caldier needs to go over to the Senate building for bill hearings. Her legislative assistant, Loujanna “LJ” Rohner of Steilacoom, walks her there.

Caldier stands to the right of her assistant and holds onto her shoulder.

“I take for granted her disability because she does so well,” Rohner said.