By Eric Nusbaum , Assistant Editor, JTNews
Early in Randy Gordon’s appointment to the State Senate in Olympia, he was asked, “Where do your values come from?” by a fellow senator. Gordon showed the senator into his office, where he keeps a 19-volume set of the Talmud.
Gordon (D-41), an attorney and adjunct law professor at Seattle University, lives in Bellevue and is an active member of Temple B’nai Torah. While he does not cross-check each individual vote with Talmudic law, Gordon cites his Jewish values as definitive — they are both the motivation for and the foundation of his public service.
Gordon’s appointment came about in a whirlwind when former Senator Fred Jarrett vacated his seat in order to serve as Deputy King County Executive. Gordon joined the Senate on the second day of its 2010 session.
“I was appointed one day, sworn in the next day, the second day of session, and I escorted the governor to the State of the State address by lunch,” Gordon said.
But in the excitement, Gordon made it a point to maintain his focus on the issues and his work.
“One of the stories out of the Talmud I’m always reminded of is of a fellow who is busy planting a tree and he’s told the Messiah has come, and the advice of the Talmud is to finish planting the tree and then go and check,” Gordon said. “There’s a value in attending to the things at hand and then focusing on the moment.”
He says this practice, along with his experience as a trial lawyer, is helping him handle the rigors of his first-ever election campaign. Gordon believes that although he was appointed to his office and is campaigning for the first time, he is doing so as a true incumbent. He cites the “Outstanding” rating he was awarded by the Municipal League of King County, the highest possible.
“I’m asking the people to let me carry on,” Gordon said. The 41st district Senate race will elect a candidate to serve two years — the remainder of the term began by Jarrett in 2009. Gordon believes the district deserves continuity in representation — and that after learning a great deal in 2010, he will enter his second session in the Senate even more prepared.
But when it comes to legislation, don’t expect any changes from an elected as opposed to the appointed Gordon.
“You’re not going to find a lot of inner torment in me,” Gordon said. “I went through the session with the decisions I was making being the right decisions for people. I believe that that’s the essence of our faith, which is — and there’s an old poem that says it — but we serve God best when serve each other.”
Gordon was the primary sponsor of seven bills and a co-sponsor of 22 others during the 2010 term. Among the bills on which he was a primary sponsor were provisions on school safety, infant and toddler early intervention, foreclosure regulation, and training for electrical workers.
Gordon’s first Senate term is likely to be remembered for the drawn-out budget negotiations that forced legislators to remain in Olympia for a special session. Less likely to be remembered is that the extra session fell during Passover. Gordon voted for the final budget but not before a brief excursion to the East Coast.
“I let the majority leader know I was going to spend time with my family for Passover,” he said. A few votes were shifted around for the sake of Gordon and other legislators with family obligations during the special session. Visiting his parents, who are in their late 80s, was not something Gordon was willing to forgo.
His parents often accompanied Gordon — via hands free cell phone — on his long early morning commutes from Bellevue to Olympia, Gordon said. The conversations usually ended in satisfied surprise when Gordon caught a glimpse of the Capitol Dome before him, reminding him of the fulfillment of what he describes as a “lifelong interest in public service.”
Gordon’s first major step toward realizing that goal was his brief candidacy for the U.S. House of Representatives 8th district seat in 2006. He quickly withdrew from the race, however, to throw his support behind Darcy Burner, who was eventually defeated by incumbent Dave Reichert. Gordon sees that decision to withdraw as an extension of the Jewish values — the Talmudic purposefulness — that drew him to politics in the first place.
“My goal was to stop the Congress from being a Republican Congress because I was unhappy with how they were taking the country under the Bush administration,” Gordon said. “The best chance of having a Democrat in the 8th was an uncontested primary. I thought that I was true to my beliefs.”
Rabbi James Mirel of Temple B’nai Torah attests to those beliefs.
“He’s been a member of our temple for many years and he has been involved; he’s a very committed Jew,” Mirel said. “He’s part of our community, part of our family.”
Gordon is proud of his active role at Temple B’nai Torah — where once upon a time he helped carry a Torah scroll on foot to the congregation’s new synagogue in Bellevue from its prior Mercer Island location — and of his Judaism in general.
“As an attorney and as a legislator, I am very devoted to the law,” Gordon said. “And the law of all laws is the Torah.”