By Dee Anne Finken, Communications Portfolio Director, LWV of Washington

Money spent lobbying public officials in Washington rose more over the last decade than in any other state that tracks such spending, according to a National Public Radio report. By 2024, that figure reached $90 million. 

Standing apart from the roughly 1,000 paid lobbyists in Olympia is the all-volunteer yet influential League of Women Voters of Washington Lobby Team. It consists of 13 citizen lobbyists, called Issue Chairs, and many more Advocates, who conduct research, track bills, issue action alerts, work with coalitions, write model legislation and advocate with lawmakers.    

Unlike their paid counterparts, who tend to focus on special interests, these nonpartisan citizen lobbyists address a broad range of issues that come before the Legislature. And they do so with impressive subject-matter expertise.

Among the areas the team is involved in are early learning, education, health care and behavioral health, the housing crisis, immigrants, a more equitable tax structure and a more effective and thoughtful criminal justice system.

Lobby Team members also work to protect old-growth forests, improve the state’s response to forest fires, divert waste, create more efficient transportation systems, and address the climate crisis.

But perhaps the advocacy for which the League is best known relates to elections. It strives for ballot security, fairness, access to information, and reduction of financial influence.

The team speaks for approximately 2,800 League members in 20 local chapters—known in League nomenclature as local Leagues—across the state.

But its broad portfolio of interests and subject-matter expertise cements its reputation as a power working to improve the lives of all who call the Evergreen state home. “The League has an unwavering dedication to legislative advocacy on behalf of all Washingtonians,” Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, recently noted.  

Liias said he feels reassured when he sees a bill has League support.  “It means the bill would undoubtedly do something good.”

Lt. Gov. Denny Heck also holds the team in high regard. 

“Powered by volunteers and fueled by an amazing array of subject matter experts, the League effectively advocates before our state Legislature,” he said earlier this year.

“In so many ways, the League represents the very best in us and the best of what a high-functioning democracy is. And they have been doing so for decades and decades!”

As the Jan. 12, 2026, start of the legislative session nears, learn more about team in the accompanying story, “A Closer Look,” and “Meet Our Advocacy Team” on the state website.

The author of this piece serves on the Lobby Team as Issue Chair for Local News & Democracy.