Honorees
Gerry Pollett, 2025 Freedom’s Light Award Receipient
October 23, 2025
Gerry is a lawyer and a Democratic member of the Washington House of Representatives, representing the 46th District since 2011. He first learned to champion open government as a teen helping his father, a politician in New York, uncover kickbacks of various kinds through the use of public records.
His father handed his information to Newsday, sealing the lesson for Gerry that the public’s right to know is essential.
As the long-time executive director of Heart of America Northwest, he is a vocal activist for cleaning up the Hanford nuclear site before radiation leeches into the groundwater and then into the Columbia River. That cleanup is difficult and expensive, and fraught with delays in attempts to seek public records.
Unlike some elected officials who may see the PRA as an irritant and prefer to weaken it, Gerry has seen it from the other side, and is a constant advocate for transparency. He is among legislators who have signed a pledge never to invoke something called “legislative privilege.” House Democratic caucus leadership, in particular, advocates that lawmakers use this privilege, currently in litigation, to withhold documents from the public. Gerry’s dedication is to be celebrated, and the WNPA hopes to work with other elected officials to ensure commitment like Gerry’s to open public records more commonly practiced and valued.
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