Washington Attorney General Nick Brown keynoted the March 14 Sunshine Breakfast, which also honored advocates for access in the past year.

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2025 Sunshine Breakfast draws record crowd

TVW coverage of the 2025 Sunshine Breakfast:

The Washington Coalition for Open Government honored open-government advocates, journalists and legislators at the annual event March 14.

State Attorney General Nick Brown was the keynote speaker.

The Coalition released an update to its special report, “Your Right to Know.” The 2024 report warned that the public’s right to access state and local government information was eroding at an alarming rate. That erosion has only accelerated, the update says, with open government now under assault.

Honorees include:

Tri-City Herald received the Toby Nixon Award for the newspaper’s long commitment to defending Washington state’s transparency laws in its editorial pages and using those laws for the newsroom’s reporting.

WashCOG board member and journalist Robert McClure received the James Andersen Award for his work making WashCOG more visible, more effective and better connected in Olympia.

InvestigateWest reporter Daniel Walters was given the Kenneth F. Bunting Award, recognizing journalistic excellence. Walters examined compliance with public records laws by filing records requests with 15 cities in Idaho, Oregon and Washington in a months-long reporting project.

WashCOG thanked seven current and former members of the state Legislature who pledged to not use “legislative privilege” to withhold records from the public; each received the Coalition’s Ballard-Thompson Award for outstanding dedication to the cause of open government during a legislative session. The lawmakers are:

• Rep. and former Speaker of the House Frank Chopp (D-43).

• Rep. Paul Harris (R-17).

• Sen. Mark Mullet (D-5).

• Sen. Ron Muzzall (R-10).

• Rep. Tina Orwall (D-33).

• Sen. Jamie Pedersen (D-43).

• Rep. Gerry Pollet (D-46).

The Ballard/Thompson Award is named in honor of former Speaker of the House Clyde Ballard (R) and former chief clerk of the house, representative, and senator, the late Alan Thompson (D). Both men were founding members of WashCOG.

Throughout the year WashCOG presents Key Awards to people and organizations who have done something notable for the cause of open government in recent months. At the Sunshine Breakfast the coalition will present a Key Award to Daniel Beekman of The Seattle Times for his “Life and Death in Yakima” investigative project.