1 state senator, 2 months, 99 bills

OLYMPIA -- Sen. Ken Jacobsen doesn't own a dog, but wants everyone else to be able to take theirs into a bar.

He also wants companies to pay for roomier airline seats when they fly employees long distances, and the state to designate Oct. 9 as Leif Erikson Day and name the Garry oak the state oak tree. Then there's his idea of a state poet laureate. Washington should have one and give the bard a firkin of beer.

For the most part, he's serious. All 99 bills he's introduced since the session opened in January -- more than any other lawmaker in the state Legislature -- serve a purpose, the Seattle Democrat said, even if most of them die.

"I'm into the theory of chaos. And in the theory of chaos, if this particle exists and this one comes into existence and this one doesn't know that one exists? It still affects the behavior of that one," he said, moving his hands around as if they were giant particles.

Translation: Jacobsen believes his legislation puts new ideas on the table and creates discussion that can affect the outcome of an issue, even if it takes years for the Legislature to finally act.

Republican Minority Leader Mike Hewitt, R-Walla Walla, says the Legislature has more important things to do. If Jacobsen were a Republican, he'd tell him to cut it out.

"I would tell him not to have these kinds of numbers" of bills, Hewitt said. "It costs money. It takes a lot of staff time to do these things. The amount of paperwork we create around here is incredible."

Jacobsen, who has introduced five times more bills than other lawmakers on average this year, argues he's doing his job.

"You get elected to legislate and introduce bills," he said. "What are you here for, to sit?"

Jacobsen, 61, is one of the state's longest-serving legislators, first elected to the House in 1983 and the Senate in 1998. He's tall, with an unruly mop of sandy hair and the look of an absent-minded professor as he walks the halls in the state Capitol. His comments, laden with snippets he's learned from history books, can sometimes leave you scratching your head.

But it would be a mistake to underestimate him, said Paul Berendt, a former chairman of the state Democratic Party who has known him for years.

Jacobsen, he said, has been around a long time, knows his district well and knows how to get things done in Olympia. "He just talks to people, and makes friends and moves things along," Berendt said.

Most of his legislation deals with meat-and-potato issues such as education, transportation and the environment. He wants to increase funding for community traumatic brain injury services, for example, and expand a program that helps veterans.

In the last two years, 19 bills he sponsored were signed into law. As for his more offbeat ideas, Jacobsen said they fill a need.

About dogs in bars: "I think dogs have a lot to offer. I think they actually take tensions out of situations. We've been together for 10,000 years now. We've co-evolved. They understand us and we understand them ... I'm just thinking, what the heck?"

On his airline-seat bill: "I got to thinking about the fact my employer has to supply me with an ergonomically sound chair. But if they ask me to go to Washington, D.C., they can stuff me in the back of the airplane. And I'm doing what they want," he said. "I think there ought to be a business class where you at least get a little [leg room]. I see it as a health risk."

As for Leif Erikson Day: "Some of the Scandinavians have asked for it. Quite honestly, he got here, what, 492 years and three days before Columbus?"

Jacobsen equates his bills with something he read about the English Parliament. "They have a group called the ginger group. That's sort of a group in the back that brings new ideas to the table," he said. "I'm not saying they're all going to get picked up, but at least you're putting out new ideas."

He says he's built up enough trust with voters in his district over the years that he feels safe introducing unconventional legislation.

Christian Sinderman, a Democratic consultant, remembers being with Jacobsen at a bar once when someone stopped by to chat. Turns out he was a voter from Jacobsen's district who recalled the senator had doorbelled his home and "came in and we watched, like, half a Mariners game together."

Jacobsen "takes doorbelling to a new level," Sinderman said. "He's a bona fide eccentric, but one who has made a point of reaching out to his constituents and forming a relationship with them."

His district, the 46th, which covers parts of Seattle including Greenwood, Northgate and Lake City, is a safe seat for Democrats. He's won with at least 80 percent of the vote in his past five elections.

Jacobsen said he hopes to get several bills through this session, which ends April 22.

Even his dog bill is still alive, although it was amended. The bill now calls for a three-year trial period in which people could bring their dogs into outside seating areas, if local government approves.

He says he's gotten a lot of positive reaction to the idea. He also "got a few e-mails saying, 'Don't you have anything better to do?' " Jacobsen said recently on the KING-TV news show "Up Front."

"I've replied to all of those: 'And my cat agrees with you completely.' "

Andrew Garber: 360-943-9882 or agarber@seattletimes.com