In his Walla Walla district, a district that is solidly Republican by a margin of 2 – 1, Democrat Bill Grant was re-elected year after year by more than 60% of the vote for 22 years much to the chagrin of Republicans. Bill Grant lost his life on Sunday just one month after he was diagnosed with lung cancer. While Grant was a major advocate against underage smoking his exposure to toxic farming dust may have been a contributing factor to his disease. However, Grant had proposed an exemption for bar and restaurant owners from the state’s smoking ban if they could prove that they had lost 10-percent of their profits.
While he occasionally voted against gay issues in the 90’s and opposed gay marriage and abortion, he would later co-sponsor gay rights bills and was unlike the State’s other socially conservative Democratic Legislators such as Senator Jim Hargrove, Tim Sheldon (who killed gay rights) and Lt. Governor Brad Owen.
There will be an appointment to his seat and a special election in which Democrats will have their work cut out of them.
