Microsoft already dominates computer software and now its employees, past and present, are dominating legislative posts in the company's heartland of Bellevue, Redmond and Kirkland.
Of six successful candidates from the 45th and 48th districts headed for Olympia next month, four are current or former Microsofties.
The increased presence of lawmakers with past or present links to Microsoft may in part reflect the company's growing stature as a corporate citizen. It also mirrors a corresponding decline in legislators with links to Boeing; they numbered about 10 in the late 1970s but are down to just two in the newly elected Legislature.
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