Nomination Of Mcmullen For U.S. Attorney Reflects Murray's New Power Role

As the man designated to be U.S. attorney for Western Washington, Patrick McMullen doesn't fit the Bill Clinton mold of a workaholic public official.

He didn't want the $100,000-a-year job when it was first offered and now that he has accepted he hopes the hours aren't too long.

"You usually don't work weekends," he said. "I like that idea."

McMullen, 48, once worked like a Clinton, toiling 70 hours a week at the state Legislature and at his Sedro-Woolley law practice. But he quit the Legislature when a doctor diagnosed colon cancer last June, and he vowed during successful chemotherapy not to spend more life on round-the-clock labors.

When U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, a friend from McMullen's legislative days, asked him to accept Western Washington's top federal law-enforcement post, he said, "I have a job, I don't need a job, I don't want a job."

But Murray persisted and finally persuaded McMullen - who was serving as her transition director - to accept.

McMullen's nomination last week was the first indicator of Murray's new role as the Democratic trail boss for the four-state region of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska. She is the only Democratic senator in the region and with a Democrat in the White House for the first time in 12 years, she has a leading role nominating people for dozens of high-paying federal jobs. The seven other Northwest senators - including longtime politicians Slade Gorton, Bob Packwood and Ted Stevens - lost their power when George Bush lost his job.

Clinton is too busy cleaning house in Washington, D.C., to worry much about jobs in Region 10, so, by presidential tradition, he turns to Murray, the closest Senate Democrat. To be sure, Murray consults with Democratic members of the House of Representatives, including Speaker Tom Foley, and with other Democratic politicians in the area. But she found out the morning after her election just how powerful her role would be.

"I did not sleep in," she said. "All of a sudden my phone was ringing off the hook from people who were aware of the process for some time, and who wanted to get their name in for these positions."

U.S. Attorney Mike McKay, who oversaw the expansion of the office in Western Washington during the past three years, said in a letter to Clinton yesterday that he would leave office April 23. He said he will join a Seattle law firm.

McMullen is among the Democrats who will soon sweep Republicans from regional federal offices such as the Commerce Department, the Energy Department, the Labor Department, the Bonneville Power Administration, the Department of Health and Human Services, the General Services Administration and others. Judges will be named, as will other U.S. attorneys and heads of more obscure agencies.

"To be perfectly honest, I didn't even realize some positions existed until they got handed to me," Murray said.

McMullen is a friend and political ally, and he may be an intriguing sign of things to come. Murray hopes he will serve not just as a federal prosecutor but also as a mediator for regional disputes such as the timber and salmon controversies.

Both friends and political enemies say McMullen is a genius at compromise. He has a poker face, a dry sense of humor and an uncanny ability to see strong points on both sides of an argument and bring them together, said friend and former state House Speaker Joe King.

"He is a highly skilled negotiator," said state Sen. Ann Anderson, R-Bellingham, his arch-foe in the Legislature. "He is a quick study. He can do a good job."

"I've heard it said that if a rock could smile, it would look like Pat McMullen," said King. "He is a very, very solid guy who unnerves people by how carefully he listens."

AVIDLY PRO-CHOICE

McMullen has other attributes that suit Murray. Though he hails from a politically conservative area, McMullen is married to the co-founder of the Skagit County Chapter, National Organization for Women. He says sexual harassment and other gender issues will be among his top priorities in the U.S. attorney's office. He is avidly pro-choice when it comes to abortion and he is likely to promote women from within his office.

Born in Seattle to a waitress and cook, McMullen spent portions of his childhood in a Seattle housing project, in a cabin on a Whidbey Island chicken farm and in a little house within an Olympic Peninsula Indian reservation.

McMullen started adult life as a Republican but switched to the Democratic Party because of an admiration for John Kennedy. His first job out of law school was as an assistant attorney general under then attorney general Slade Gorton. Gorton, now the state's senior senator, also recommended McMullen for the U.S. attorney position.

McMullen was elected Skagit County prosecutor in 1974 and re-elected in 1978. During that time, a former client filed the only complaint against him before the Washington State Bar Association. McMullen had charged her with murder in his county and, although McMullen had hired an outside attorney to prosecute her, she thought her former lawyer should have had no role in filing charges against her. The bar complaint was rejected and the woman was convicted. She was later released from prison because she had been an abuse victim. McMullen supported her release.

Later, when convicted murderer Delia Alaniz was also freed from prison because her husband had been abusing her when she hired a man to kill him, McMullen sponsored a bill that allows judges to consider abuse as a mitigating factor in murder cases.

McMullen resigned from the prosecutor's office in 1980 to run for the Legislature but backed off when a friend opted to run for the same office. He tried again in 1982 and was elected to the state House of Representatives. By his third term, he was House majority leader.

QUICK RISE TO POWER

McMullen switched to the Senate to fill an open seat and quickly rose to the position of Senate Democratic floor leader. There he got to know Murray, another fast riser who was serving as Senate Democratic whip.

Much of McMullen's campaign support has come from trial lawyers, teachers, state employees and unions, although some corporations and insurance companies have weighed in. He made logging companies happy when he was one of only eight Democrats to vote to reduce a timber tax, yet brought smiles to environmentalists when he co-sponsored the state's Growth Management Act.

Clinton's people had recommended Seattle attorney Robert Randolph, a school friend of the president's, but Murray said she didn't know enough about Randolph to nominate him.

Some lawyers who work around the federal courts, meanwhile, wonder whether McMullen has enough courtroom experience. He has never set foot inside the U.S. attorney's office and has handled only civil cases in federal court. The biggest law office he has run was the five-attorney Skagit County Prosecutor's Office, a far cry from the 50 attorneys and 60 support staffers he will supervise in the Justice Department office, if he passes FBI and Senate scrutiny.

But McKay, the man he would replace, says McMullen possesses the right credentials. "He has real depth and an understanding of law enforcement," McKay said.

McKay also says it should be possible for McMullen to keep something near a 40-hour work week. The U.S. attorney designs his own job. There is plenty to do, but it can be delegated.

"If he wants to be home with his family, he will be able to be home with his family," McKay said.