I realize I made a pretty grand statement in my post this morning without providing the evidence. I wrote:

BTW: Bravest floor-speech of the session so far, goes to Sen. Craig Pridemore (D-49, Vancouver), who told leadership no dice, and condemned  the bill before the vote in the Senate last week.

It's not the greatest speech ever (and it's terribly wonky), but Sen. Pridemore (who only joined the Senate in 2005, and is currently a mere vice chair on one committee) definitely stands up to leadership with this one—ridiculing a bill that's being pushed by Senate Majority Leader Sen. Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane) and is being sponsored by her Majority Whip, Sen. Chris Marr (D-6, Spokane). Sen. Marr ends up having to defend his own bill with the resounding conclusion that, "it does pass the straight face test." 

Here's the floor debate on Sen. Marr's bill, which undoes voter-approved I-937, the renewable energy initiative. Sen. Pridemore begins speaking at 1:52:00 and doesn't really get going—he seems nervous—until around 1:54:30ish when he talks about how the bill will lower renewable energy standards by 60 to 70 percent. (You can fast forward right to it so you don't have to watch the whole thing.)



I'm going to take back "bravest" because moments ago I was chastised by a fellow Olympia reporter about using superlatives.

But I have heard that Sen. Pridemore startled a few liberal colleagues, and it got them second guessing this bill, something worth noting if the bill comes back to the Senate from the House.