Domestic partnership bill passes Senate

Senator Ed Murray's SB5336 has passed the Senate on a 28-19 vote, the first step to making it law. Considering that Chris Gregoire has stated she supports it and a majority of House members are signed on as cosponsors, this fight is pretty much over. It was not without the usual bitching by Val Stevens, but all in all this was fairly easy. Two senators, Paull Shin and Cheryl Pflug, did not vote. The roll call went as follows:

Voting Yea:
Senators Berkey, Brandland [R], Brown, Eide, Fairley, Franklin, Fraser, Haugen, Hobbs, Jacobsen, Kastama, Kauffman, Keiser, Kilmer, Kline, Kohl-Welles, Marr, McAuliffe, Murray, Oemig, Poulsen, Prentice, Pridemore, Regala, Rockefeller, Spanel, Tom, and Weinstein.

Voting Nay:
Senators Benton, Carrell, Clements, Delvin, Hargrove [D], Hatfield [D], Hewitt, Holmquist, Honeyford, McCaslin, Morton, Parlette, Rasmussen [D], Roach, Schoesler, Sheldon [D], Stevens, Swecker, and Zarelli.