Evan Clifthorne, 28
  • Evan Clifthorne, 28
Eli Sanders: You’re running for the open seat in Seattle's very liberal 36th District. Yet you’ve been working as a legislative aide to Washington State Senator Paull Shin, who voted against gay marriage this year. Do you think your time working for Shin is going to be a problem for you in this race?

Evan Clifthorne: I certainly hope that it will not be. I hope that people in the 36th District will be able to understand that I took a job with Senator Shin because I’m passionate about public policy, and was thrilled about the opportunity to affect change in our state. And while I disagree with him on certain social issues, the vast majority of our beliefs and ideals lined up. And I believe we were able to accomplish a lot for the greater good.

Did you try to convince Senator Shin to vote for gay marriage?

You know, Senator Shin and I discussed a great deal of bills. And one of the things that is inherent in the relationship between a senator and their legislative assistant is a certain degree of confidentiality. So I don’t think it would be appropriate for me to discuss what we talked about with respect to the marriage equality bill. When I was in his office, at times what it came down to was that even if I disagreed with him, in the end I had a job to do.

Senator Paull Shin: Campaign killer?
  • Senator Paull Shin: Campaign killer?
Were you personally in support of the marriage equality bill?

I absolutely support marriage equality and I always have.

So did you ever think of resigning, since you found yourself employed by a person who was voting against your beliefs and convictions?

The thought most definitely crossed my mind.

So why didn’t you?

In the end, one of the things that’s important to understand about the legislature and your role there, is that things only get accomplished when everybody that’s involved values and respects the idea of professionalism. The senate, the house, whether it’s here in Washington State or in Washington, D.C., can often be a madhouse. Passions run hot, and people have beliefs that they feel have to be upheld in every situation. Without dignity and respect and professionalism nothing would ever get done. And I think that’s one of the reasons why I think I can be effective in the legislature and understand how things work. You have to be willing to understand how to work with people and build relationships with people, even when you disagree on an issue.

How long have you worked for Senator Shin as a legislative aide?

I’ve worked for Senator Shin for the past couple of years.

So you’re aware that he’s voted against equality for LGBT citizens of Washington State in the past?

I was aware of his record on issues dealing with marriage equality—

And domestic partnership rights.

—and domestic partnership rights, and I was aware that he had predominantly indicated that he was opposed to marriage equality.

And yet you went to work for him anyway.

You know, when I first started working for him, marriage equality and his record on the issue was not something that was at the forefront of my mind.

When did you first start working for him?

Two years ago. As I said, I’ve absolutely supported marriage equality my whole life, but it’s not something as a young person that has been a driving factor in my life.

How old are you now?

Twenty eight years old.

So you were 26ish when you started working for him.

Ish, yeah. I’d have to think about the dates and my birthday, but yeah, ish.

And so you’ve been pro-marriage-equality all you’re life, you’re saying, but it wasn’t as pressing an issue to your two years ago?

I guess what I would say is that when I first started working for a Democrat it didn’t—the first thought in my mind was not to go look up their past record on marriage equality.

But wasn’t it two years ago that the legislature was voting on the “everything but marriage” set of domestic partnership rights?

I believe that was the legislative session of 2010, which was the legislative session prior to me starting.

And Shin voted against everything but marriage. Which was right before you started working for him.

What I’m trying to get at is that when I first started working for Senator Shin and I looked up his record, and I looked up his biography, and I tried to find out what kind of person he was, what showed up online and in his bio and in the majority of his record was that he was someone who was a champion for the most vulnerable in our state. He was a champion for education, he was a champion for improving trade relations. And when I interviewed with him, and we talked about the issues that were important to him, those were the issues that stood out and he highlighted. And those are issues that are important to me, too. When it comes down to it, I think there are a lot more bills that come through our legislature that deal with education, vulnerable citizens, the social safety net, environmental conservation, supporting our middle class, than the few votes here and there that deal with equal rights.

Do you think that a candidate who was opposed to marriage equality could ever win in the 36th?

I would be surprised if a candidate who was opposed to marriage could win in the 36th.

Do you think that a candidate like yourself, who worked for a state senator who opposed marriage equality and expansion of domestic partnership rights, can win in the 36th?

I believe people who live in the 36th District are educated and understand that simply because I worked for someone does not make me an advocate for every single issue that they believe.

What’s been your history of activism or advocacy in support of equal rights for gays and lesbians?

It’s not been a driving force in my life. The idea that there was no difference between people based on their sexuality was simply something I grew up with. I have family members who are gay, and close family friends who are gay, and had close friends throughout high school who were gay, and it never struck me that there was anything all that different about them. And while I certainly supported the advocacy of my friends and family members, it was never something that was a divisive issue in my life.

So your gay family members and friends weren’t upset that you were working for a senator who voted against gay marriage, and against domestic partnership rights?

You know, I had lots of conversations with my friends and family when it became clear to me that there was no chance that he was going to vote in favor of the bill. And my family and friends were very supportive in helping me understand the value of professionalism, and the greater good that can come out of working with someone on issues like protecting the vulnerable and education. And they helped me to see that it really was simply one issue amid a sea of important issues.

You said you considered resigning during all of this. How close did you actually come to resigning?

There was definitely a period in my mind where it was a yes or no question, up or down. And it was definitely something that Senator Shin and I discussed.

And?

And I ultimately decided, as I said previously, that there is a lot to be said for professionalism and commitments. I made a commitment to Senator Shin. I had made a commitment to work with him on other issues. And as I said, it’s one issue in a sea of issues that are the greater good. I mean, ultimately I am very proud of the work that Senator Shin and I have worked on together to accomplish. We’ve worked on improving access to higher education for students with disabilities, we’ve worked on increasing representation for students at community colleges, are working to prevent outsourcing and keeping jobs in Washington, are helping to ensure that low income housing remains available in this state. I mean, these are things that we’ve spent a lot of time and energy on, and to give up on a range of other issues as a result of one single issue is not something, I think, a good legislator does. I mean, equal rights champions like Ed Murray and Jamie Pedersen didn’t get through landmark legislation by isolating people who disagreed with them. They have pushed Washington toward becoming—vote pending—the second state in the country to have the legislature actually affirm equal rights. And they only did that by actually talking to people who disagreed with them, and working with people who disagreed with them. And I felt like I was really in the same position. Sometimes people who agree about a lot of issues disagree about a single issue. And you have to be able to learn to agree to disagree, and continue advocating in your own right to make sure that what you believe is right actually gets accomplished.

If you don’t win this race will you go back and keep working for Senator Shin next session?

I will be working for Senator Shin until the end of the special session, at which point I will be leaving his employ, and the legislature, in order to campaign full time. And Senator Shin will be hiring a new legislative assistant, most likely by the end of April.

When you think of legislators who you’d want to model yourself after, is Senator Shin one of them?

You know, I choose to model myself after legislators like Senator Shin, Kevin Ranker, Ed Murray, Jamie Pedersen, people who, especially with respect to this issue, understood the value of talking to people on both sides. And understood the value of giving people the space to come to their own decision about what they felt they needed to do. In the end, I think marriage equality was passed not because we were hammering legislators or guilting legislators into voting a certain way. It was passed because legislators like them understood the value of personal decision making, and the value of relationships and cooperation over disagreements and confrontation and challenges.

It’s a crowded field in the 36th, with seven people running. And we’ve talked a lot about same sex marriage. But setting this issue aside for a moment, why do you think that you’re the best candidate to fill this seat?

I think that I am the best candidate because I know that I can hit the ground running. I think that we have been living in a state where, for the past decade, our state has been incrementally dismantled by the likes of Tim Eyman, and if we don’t take action soon to fix things—like our regressive tax structure, restore our safety net, and fund our schools as they aught to be—pretty soon we’ll have no government left. We’ll have died a slow death at the hand of Eyman’s angy and uninformed mob. And, having been down in the legislature, I can be more effective at achieving results than any of the other candidates in this race.