Legislator Bill Kiskaddon was last Republican to represent Shoreline

By Evan Smith

Bill Kiskaddon, who died December 3, was the last Republican to represent Shoreline and Lake Forest Park in the State Legislature and the Republican who lost his seat to Democrat Patty Murray.

He also was one of the last Washington legislators to benefit from partisan redistricting.

Kiskaddon’s first year in the state senate, 1981, was the last year that Washington legislators drew the boundaries of their own districts. Republican control of the State Senate and the House of Representatives that year meant that Republicans could control redistricting.

When Kiskaddon started his term representing Mountlake Terrace and the rest of the 1st Legislative District, Democrats held a 25-24 majority, but a party switch by a Bellevue-area senator gave Republicans a slim majority in the senate to go with a clear majority in the House.

Republicans drew the lines to keep Kiskaddon, in a revised 1st District, most of it in north King County, including Shoreline, Lake Forest Park and Kenmore in an area where liberal Republican Kiskaddon could feel comfortable.

That made Kiskaddon the incumbent in a district with another incumbent, Shoreline Democrat Donn Charnley. Kiskaddon defeated Charnley in 1984, giving Kiskaddon a second four-year term, but in 1988, Kiskaddon lost to Democrat Murray in an election that prefaced Murray’s election to the U.S. Senate in 1992.

The 1981 redistricting was the last done by the legislature. Voters then approved a measure that gives the redistricting power to an independent bipartisan commission. Such commissions have done the redistricting in 1991, 2001 and 2011.

The 1991 redistricting put Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore and north Kirkland into the 32nd District with part of northwest Seattle. Democratic State Reps. Grace Cole and Nancy Rust continued to represent the area in House of Representatives, and, in 1994, Democrat Darlene Fairley won the first of four four-year terms in the State Senate. Democrats have continued to represent the area.

A former Associated Press reporter in Olympia has called Kiskaddon “a true gentleman.” Former Associated Press reporter Dave Ammons, now communications director for the secretary of state, added, “He was beloved by people on both sides of the aisle.”

Kiskaddon was part of a dying moderate wing of the Republican Party. His first term in the State Senate coincided with the term of moderate Republican Gov. John Spellman, the state’s last Republican governor. Kiskaddon earlier had served three two-year terms in the state House of Representatives, 1967-73, covering two years of moderate Republican Gov. Dan Evans’ first term and all of Evans’ second term.

Kiskaddon once spoke of lobbying Spellman to veto a bill pushed by social conservatives in his own party.

As a freshman House member in 1967, Kiskaddon was part of the legislature that reorganized the state community college system.

Just as he would become uncomfortable in an increasingly conservative party, Kiskaddon had earlier become uncomfortable as a Boeing engineer. He earned a master’s degree in social work, and became a family counselor.

A memorial service is scheduled for December 30 at 2pm at the Richmond Beach Congregational Church at the corner of NW Richmond Beach Road and 15th Ave NW (1512 NW 195th St) in Shoreline.

Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.