Joanne Brekke
Joanne Brekke (Democrat) represent[ed] [the 32nd]
district of King County in the House of
Representatives. Appointed in 1979, she was
elected later that year.
Born 1935, in North Bend, Washington,
Brekke was raised in Snoqualmie and ...
live[d] in Seattle. Hoping "to make the world a
bit better," she attended the University of
Washington and in 1957 received her B.A. in
Sociology.
Volunteer campaign work was her first
step into political involvement. Concerned
about quality of education she lobbied in
Olympia for Citizens for Fair School Funding.
While picking up the fine points of legislative
process, she came to the realization that she
was capable of being a good legislator. An
open seat in her district provided the
opportunity to prove it.
Representative Brekke would like to
see more women in office. She feels women
legislators as a group have more to prove
and tend to work harder. She has three
teenage children.
--Political Pioneers, The Women Lawmakers