House Speaker Frank Chopp promoted his and his fellow Democrats' progressive credentials this morning. He touted things such as the mental health parity bill, an increase in school construction, grants for free community college tuition for some students, family leave and expanding subsidized health insurance for children.

Chopp is well aware of criticism from some on the left that he and the big House majority he controlled were too timid. At times that criticism was loud and clear from fellow Democrats in the Senate. But he said the House has been successful in pushing progressive legislation for three years running.

"But if you do that progressive agenda and you're thoughtful about how to work with people, it'll become a mainstream agenda. The things that we've done the last three sessions are ... very progressive legislation. But people consider it commonsense, middle of the road, mainstream. Well, that's the best of all, because we're trying to figure out what the people of the state want, as well as what they need."

The Senate was particularly unhappy with the version of the family leave bill that became law. The bill that passed doesn't include a specific funding source, while Senate Democrats wanted to use a payroll tax on employees to fund the mandated leave. Chopp said today he has three ideas for funding that are "better than the proposal from the Senate."

His ideas — which he said are all still in the early stages of review — include using interest earned from the unemployment insurance fund and trying to get money from the federal government as part of a children's health-care program.

Chopp also pointed out that one of the groups that was lobbying hard for family leave was the Economic Opportunity Institute, a group he formed before his time in the Legislature.

"Some of these things that are coming to fruition are things I've been working on for 15 to 20 years."

Last night Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, mentioned a homeowner's bill of rights and a restriction on gravel mining on Maury Island as two Senate priorities that died in the House.

Chopp said he supported the Maury Island bill, but that he did not have the votes in his caucus. When pressed about that, he said that was a question for "the 19 people in caucus who told me 'No.' "

The homeowner bill, though, Chopp said needed work and consultation with people in the housing industry.

"We will bring people together ... to make sure that we do something that will actually do what it intended and make sure that we do it the right way.

...

"If you haven't ever had to get a building permit, if you've never had to get a contractor to build an apartment building or a large home complex, if you've never had to deal across the table from an permit issuer, if you never had to go to an insurance company to get construction insurance, if you've never had to go to a bank to get interim construction financing, if you've never had to deal with the egos of architects; do you want me to keep going? Then you ought to consider those points of view."

Chopp is always thinking about the next election. He said this morning he has already identified candidates for the 2008 election season.

"We already have six to pick up more seats," he said to laughs from reporters. "I'm not joking." We asked who they were, but he said, "No, I better not. I have them. You'll see them."

This morning was the first time Chopp had held a media availability since February. That was the event where he mistakenly — and he says jokingly — accused NASCAR legend Richard Petty of having a DUI on his record.

That came up this morning when Chopp was asked about the session, and what he would have done differently. He said he made mistakes, and despite his staff encouraging him not to be specific, Chopp said when pressed:

"I'll think about that. Wait a minute, the last time someone said that it was George Bush. He couldn't think of a mistake so I don't want to repeat that mistake.

"Let me say, actually I thought I made a mistake when I talked about Petty, Richard Petty. I just thought that was, well, stupid and thought it was inappropriate. And I really get down on myself when I do something wrong that might have hurt somebody. I had no right saying that. I meant it as a joke. But I agonized over that. I think it was wrong what I did."