Lisa Brown (Washington politician)

Lisa Jo Brown (born October 9, 1956) is an American politician and educator who served as the director of the Washington State Department of Commerce. A member of the Democratic Party, Brown has served in both houses of the Washington State Legislature, including eight years as the first Democratic female majority leader of the Washington State Senate. She has also served as the chancellor of Washington State University Spokane, a position she stepped down from in order to mount an unsuccessful campaign for the U.S. House.

Born and raised in Illinois, she received her undergraduate education from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Colorado, Boulder. Brown spent over three decades in higher education teaching economics at Eastern Washington University and in the organizational leadership program at Gonzaga University. She was appointed the first female Chancellor of Washington State University, Spokane in 2013 and served in that role until 2017.

Brown first entered politics in 1992 when she was elected to the Washington State House of Representatives. She was elected to the State Senate in 1996 and elected as the first female Democratic Majority Leader of that body in 2005. She returned to politics in 2018, running to represent  against Republican incumbent Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Brown was considered a dark horse candidate and the race received national attention, though Brown lost. In 2019, Governor Jay Inslee appointed her director of the Washington State Department of Commerce. She declined a run for Mayor of Spokane in 2019. In 2023, Brown resigned from the Washington State Department of Commerce to launch a campaign for Mayor of Spokane in that year's election.

Early life and education
Lisa Jo Brown was born October 9, 1956, in Robinson, Illinois. She graduated from the University of Illinois with a bachelor's degree in economics. She earned a master's degree and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Career
Outside of politics, Brown worked in higher education and public leadership positions as a professor, a university administrator and she is currently the director of the Washington State Department of Commerce. Brown began working as an associate professor of economics at Eastern Washington University in 1981, a position she would hold until 2001. She served briefly as the interim director of the university's Women's Center in 1983.

While on sabbatical from Eastern Washington University in 1990, Lisa traveled to Nicaragua where she participated as an election observer at a Nicaraguan election and studied and taught an economics class at Central American University in Managua. When the conservative National Opposition Union won power in 1990, Brown expressed worry that the new leaders would walk back the partially state-run command economy, replacing it with a more conservative, market-based economy.

Brown also worked as a professor in organizational leadership at Gonzaga University from 2001 until 2012. She became the Chancellor of Washington State University Spokane in 2013 after leaving the state senate. As chancellor, Brown oversaw the creation of the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, the first medical school in the Washington State University system and the second public medical school in the state. The school opened in 2015 and its inaugural class was seated in the fall of 2017.

In 2016, Brown accompanied former Lieutenant Governor of Washington Brad Owen to Cuba on a fact-finding trip concerning healthcare. Upon return, Brown praised aspects of the community-based Cuban healthcare system in an interview. In the same interview, Brown stated that aspects of the Cuban model should be used in the United States.

Washington Governor Jay Inslee appointed Brown as director of the Department of Commerce on January 29, 2019. Her term began on February 11. On February 13, 2023, Brown announced she would step down as director on March 3 of the same year. Following her resignation, she announced her campaign for Mayor of Spokane, challenging incumbent Nadine Woodward in the 2023 election.

Washington State Legislature

House of Representatives
Brown was first elected to the state legislature in 1992. She received 46.51% of the vote out in a field of five candidates (which included four fellow Democrats) during the September primary election. In the November general election, she defeated Republican Chuck Potter by receiving 64.48% of the vote to Potter's 35.52%. She was reelected in 1994, receiving 64.55% to Republican John G. Titchenal's 35.45%. Brown was named minority floor leader at the start of her second term.

Committee assignments
First term:
Committee on Transportation, Vice-Chair
Committee on Revenue
Committee on Human Services
 
Second term: 
Committee on Transportation
Committee on Children and Family Services
Rules Committee

State senate
Brown announced she would challenge one-term incumbent John A. Moyer in the 1996 election on April 22, 1996. In her announcement, she named education and welfare as her two major priorities for the campaign and her tenure. Due to Moyer's perceived vulnerability and the potential for the seat to swing the balance of power in the state senate, the race was expected to be one of the most competitive and expensive in the state. Brown went on to win the election, receiving 57.65% of the vote in the September primary and 55.3% of the vote in the general election. Brown was unopposed in 2000. She won over 60% of the vote in 2004 and almost 75% of the vote in 2008.

Political positions

Tax policy
At a candidates' debate in Spokane in 1996, State Senator John A. Moyer, whom Brown was challenging, questioned why Brown voted in 1993 for what he called the biggest tax increase in state history. Brown replied that Moyer mischaracterized the vote, and said she supported the tax increase to balance the budget.
 
In 1995, when the state had a budget surplus, Brown criticized Republicans for not offering tax breaks to middle class families. Brown supported using the surplus to lower the state sales tax and property taxes for low- and middle-income families. She opposed a Republican-supported measure to raise the gas tax.

In 2005, Brown voted against a $258 million property tax cut. Washington law, passed by voter initiative I-960, requires that a two-thirds majority be reached in the legislature on bills which raise taxes. As State Senate Majority Leader, Brown initiated a lawsuit in 2009 challenging the measure, which the state supreme court rejected unanimously. Later, in 2010, Brown voted yes on S.B. 6843 and S.B. 6130 to suspend the two-thirds threshold required by state law to raise taxes. In 2005, Brown had advocated for the legislature to be given the authority to raise taxes without having to meet the two-thirds threshold.

Welfare policy
Brown's time in the House coincided with a national movement for welfare reform, a large part of President Bill Clinton's agenda. Brown was opposed to welfare reform that involved making any cuts to the program, specifically those which cut programs for parents and children. She opposed a welfare bill that would end benefits for teenage parents and put a two-year cap on benefits for everyone. Approximately 40% of the citizens in Spokane relied on public assistance programs during Brown's tenure.

Health care policy
Brown, during her 2018 campaign for the House of Representatives, proposed the U.S. federal government provide a public option for health insurance, the lowering of the age of eligibility for Medicare, and the expansion of Medicaid. She has explicitly declined to endorse a full overhaul of the U.S. health care system stating "I don't think it’s realistic to expect that we’re going to create an entire public system, and then tell everyone they have to give up their current system to go into it."

2018 U.S. House candidacy

After months of speculation, Brown announced her candidacy for United States House of Representatives on August 31, 2017. She challenged Republican incumbent Cathy McMorris Rodgers in Washington's 5th congressional district, which has not had a Democratic representative since former House Speaker Tom Foley lost reelection to George Nethercutt in 1994 during the Republican Revolution.
 
During a December 20, 2017, town hall, Brown opposed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, Republican-supported legislation which had been passed earlier that month, which lowered personal and corporate tax rates, and repealed the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act. McMorris Rodgers, as the Chair of the Republican House Caucus, was one of the major proponents of the legislation. Brown criticized the bill, saying it was unfairly beneficial to wealthier Americans, increased the deficit, and forced tax cuts to programs such as health care and agriculture.

In the August blanket primary, Brown received 45.36% of the vote to 49.29 percent for McMorris Rodgers. As of early August 2018, Brown had raised about $2.4 million and McMorris Rodgers had raised about $3.8 million for their campaigns.

In the November general election, Brown was defeated by McMorris Rodges, garnering 45.26% of the vote to McMorris Rodgers' 54.74%. This was the best showing for a Democrat in the district in over two decades.

Though she had been mentioned as a potential candidate for Mayor of Spokane in 2019, she denied she had any intention of running.

Personal life 
Brown married Spokane City Council policy adviser Brian McClatchey on October 9, 2017. The two had met in 2010 while campaigning for Spokane Mayor Mary Verner's re-election campaign. Brown has one child from a previous relationship.

References

External links
Washington State Senate - Senator Lisa Brown (D) 3rd Legislative District archived official WA State Senate website
Project Vote Smart - Senator Lisa J. Brown (WA) profile
Follow the Money - Lisa Brown
2006 2004 2000 1996 1994 1992 campaign contributions

1956 births
21st-century American women politicians
Candidates in the 2018 United States elections
Democratic Party members of the Washington House of Representatives
Democratic Party Washington (state) state senators
Living people
State cabinet secretaries of Washington (state)
University of Colorado Boulder alumni
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign alumni
Women state legislators in Washington (state)