The AP is reporting that a state Republican senate staffer is taking legal action against the state senate for allowing state Sen. Pam Roach (R-31, Auburn) back into the GOP caucus which reportedly prompted him to quit.

Roach was banned from caucusing with her party because of her mistreatment of staff. However, as many have theorized, and what the AP article now says, is that the Republicans allowed her back into the caucus in exchange for her vote on last month's big budget coup.

The brief AP article says:

A Senate Republican senior attorney is seeking a $1.75 million settlement from the state, saying that Senate Republicans have created a hostile work environment by allowing Sen. Pam Roach back into the caucus in exchange for a vital vote on their budget plan last month.

In a document obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, an attorney for Republican Senate Counsel Mike Hoover says that Hoover felt pressured to quit so that the caucus "could more easily make a trade with Senator Roach."

After a press conference on the budget today, acting senate minority leader Sen. Linda Evans Parlette (R-12, Wenatchee) said the ban on Roach was only lifted during the discussion of the budget vote. She ended the press conference before reporters got a chance to ask if there was a vote trade.

I have a call in to the senate Republicans.