residence predecessor successor birth_name birth_place party profession office birth_date order term_start article_title term_end name alma_mater
west washington -lrb- 2007-present -rrb- seattle , washington -lrb- 1994-2007 -rrb- olympia , dow constantine michael j. heavey joe mcdermott toni lysen erik edmund poulsen milwaukee , wisconsin , u.s. democratic government relations director public relations director washington position 1 state representative from the 34th legislative district , 03 august 1964 washington state senator from the 34th legislative district 2002 01 07 1995 01 09 erik poulsen
 2007 10 01 2002 01 07 erik poulsen university of wisconsin -- madison -lrb- b.a. -rrb-
erik poulsen

erik edmund poulsen -lrb- born august 3 , 1964 -rrb- is the former washington state senator from washington 's 34th legislative district , a district that includes west seattle , vashon island , and most of burien .
poulsen served in the washington house of representatives from 1995-2002 where he was chairman of the house energy , technology & telecommunications committee .
best known for his work securing telecommunications authority for public utility districts and derailing a high-profile energy deregulation scheme sponsored by enron , poulsen won appointment to the senate in 2002 .
there , he quickly ascended to positions as chairman of the senate energy , water & environment committee and democratic leader of the senate capital budget committee .
he was instrumental in passage of the historic columbia river water agreement in 2006 , when he was named washington conservation voters legislator of the year .
poulsen spent his entire legislative career working to stop the expansion of a gravel mine on maury island which has since been acquired by king county and will soon become a public park .
he stepped down in 2007 to become government relations director for the washington public utility district association , whose 26 member puds provide electric , water-sewer , and broadband service throughout washington state .
the seattle times ' chief political reporter , david postman , wrote this article upon poulsen leaving the legislature .
september 4 , 2007 erik poulsen to resign senate seat for new pud jobposted by david postman sen. erik poulsen , a democrat who has represented west seattle in the legislature for nearly 13 years , is resigning his seat to take a job with the washington public utilities districts association .
poulsen will be government relations director for the pud group .
poulsen had been considering a run for state lands commissioner .
but an offer from the pud association convinced him to leave the world of electoral politics .
poulsen told me : `` it will allow me to keep working on environmental and public power issues that are near and dear to my heart , and enable me to get my two sons through college .
i always wanted to go out on top and i feel like i 've set the environmental agenda in olympia for the past several years and put a lot of things in motion . ''
he said he has grown tired of the `` nuts and bolts of campaigning . ''
poulsen 's pending resignation means an appointment will be made to fill his seat until november 2008 .
the two democrats representing the 34th district in the house are eileen cody and joe mcdermott .
cody has more seniority .
-lrb- add : the appointment is made by the king county council from a list of three candidates submitted by the district party organization . -rrb-
poulsen established himself as a voice in utility debates early in his legislative career .
his first year in office he worked to stop an effort to deregulate the state 's electric utilities .
he worked with republicans in 1997 to prevent what he says now would have been an enron-style deregulation of washington 's power market .
he said : `` that gave me great insight into the value of public power and it something i 've been passionate about ever since . ''
senate democratic caucus i 'd say poulsen 's biggest accomplishment , though , was the legislature 's bipartisan deal in 2006 to rework how water disputes are handled on the columbia and lower snake rivers .
the legislature had been unable to deal with water legislation for more than a decade -- with democrats and republicans lining up behind environmentalists and farmers in a long-standing stalemate .
as craig welch reported last year : in the face of that stalemate , sen. erik poulsen , d-west seattle , who chairs the senate committee that deals with water , went to eastern washington to fish last summer with sen. bob morton , r-orient , ferry county , and work out a solution .
`` we were trying to change the culture of how we work on water in olympia , '' poulsen said .
after months of miscues , poulsen and morton this year told environmentalists and farmers to lock themselves away and reach a compromise both sides could live with .
poulsen is widely credited with guiding that compromise through the legislature .
he said he leaves with one major disappointment .
this year he was unable to pass legislation to stop an expansion of gravel mining on maury island .
poulsen has been among the more quotable members of the legislature .
he 's also irreverent at times , even using that trait as a political tool .
in 2003 he and then-sen .
aaron reardon slipped off in poulsen 's suv to slow down senate action on a bill so that house speaker frank chopp would have time to work a compromise more to their liking .
poulsen hopes to raise the profile of the puds in olympia .
his hiring does some of that off the bat .
he will also hire two contract lobbyists and he said , `` i hope to make a big statement with the lobbyists i hire as well . ''
one of the big issues facing the puds is their involvement with high speed internet service in rural parts of the state .
poulsen says that commercial carriers are not interested in serving small communities , but that the puds need legislation to allow them into that business .
erik now lives in olympia , wa .
