Free Republic

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire appears to be softening her stance on raising taxes. Gregoire said today that her “door is open” to lawmakers and advocates who want to make the case for a tax package this January. Olympia Correspondent Austin Jenkins reports. A year ago when Gregoire was running for re-election this was how she responded to questions about higher taxes to offset budget cuts. Gregoire: “Now is not the time and I mean now meaning period not the time to consider raising anything.” 4.5 billion dollars in cuts later – and with the state facing yet another billion dollar...

Despite much fanfare, grandstanding and a whole bunch of twenty-somethings packing hearings with hopeful faces and "Cap & Invest, YES!" stickers, Governor Gregoire's requested climate change legislation failed.   No matter. The governor signed an executive order today that all state agencies must "develop emissions reduction strategies and set benchmarks for industry emissions." If you can't beat 'em, steamroll 'em, right? She is, of course, within her legal right to do so. More details on her executive order from the TVW blog.   Governor Gregoire is showcasing Hayek's classic dilemma of the economic planner. Essentially, Hayek notes the obvious--that agreement...

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire sidestepped her Legislature's refusal to adopt a cap-and-trade program to limit greenhouse gases, signing an executive order Thursday to achieve similar reductions by ratcheting back coal-fired electricity and automobile emissions. "I wanted cap-and-trade. I didn't get it," said Gregoire, a Democrat, whose order directs government agencies to expand public transit and other programs to meet auto emissions goals, and to reach agreement with the state's only coal-fired power plant to reduce its carbon output at least 50% by 2025. The order also calls for development of an even wider-ranging set of emission reduction strategies to achieve...

SEATTLE -- Conservative blogger Stefan Sharkansky says King County has agreed to pay him $225,000 to settle a public records lawsuit over the county's failure to release documents about the 2004 governor's election. Sharkansky filed his request in December 2004, seeking a list of everyone who voted in the election that year, but the county didn't satisfy the request until more than three years later. He says the documents that were ultimately provided revealed that elections officials in King County counted hundreds of ineligible ballots, which could have changed the outcome of the razor-thin race between Democrat Chris Gregoire and...

An e-mail from a state labor group linking campaign donations to contentious worker-rights legislation has prompted legislative leaders to kill the bill and request an investigation by law enforcement. The e-mail raises "serious legal and ethical questions," Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Democratic leadership in the House and Senate said in a joint statement Wednesday. They referred the issue to the Washington State Patrol for investigation. Lawmakers would not release the e-mail, but a copy was obtained by The Seattle Times. It was sent to several members of labor organizations as well as a small number of state lawmakers. The...

Governors’ Fight Over Stimulus May Define G.O.P. By ROBERT PEAR and J. DAVID GOODMAN Published: February 22, 2009 WASHINGTON — Republican governors split sharply over the weekend over how to respond to the economic crisis, a debate whose outcome will go a long way toward shaping how the national party redefines itself in the wake of its election defeats of recent years.While the $787 billion stimulus bill might help avert draconian budget cuts by deeply stressed states, Republican governors clashed over just how much of the stimulus money to accept. And governors of both parties said that they did not...

SEATTLE -- Gov. Chris Gregoire has scheduled a news conference for Tuesday morning that's shrouded in secrecy, but KIRO 7 Eyewitness News has learned that she will not announce that she's joining the Obama Administration. The governor's office said Monday that Gregoire is out of state. She canceled an Olympia speaking engagement set for Tuesday, and she will make an announcement Tuesday at 10 a.m. via satellite to local reporters. A number of bloggers speculated the governor would be named as president-elect Obama's Commerce Secretary after New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson withdrew from the running. An Obama spokesman, Robert Gibbs,...

Gov. Chris Gregoire is out of state, but her office won't say where she is. Gregoire was set to be the keynote speaker Tuesday at a pre-legislative session forum sponsored by The Associated Press, but her office canceled Monday afternoon. Legislative director Marty Brown will stand in for Gregoire at the forum. Spokesman Pearse Edwards said that Gregoire will be making an announcement Tuesday morning, and that no further information would be released before then.

SEATTLE—Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire wants illegal immigrants serving time in state jails deported, a move intended to save the state more than $9 million in the next two-year budget. The deportation proposal is modeled after a program in Arizona that has saved the state more than $18.5 million since 2005, said Eldon Vail, Secretary of the state Department of Corrections. "It's not an ideal choice, if revenue was there, I'd say have them do their time," Vail said. "Is justice better served? It's a tough question to wrestle with when you don't have resources." The state faces a $5.7 billion...

How the Democrats 'won' the Washington governor's mansion in 2004. Sorry Minnesota, but the sequel is never as good as the original. For those who watched the Washington State governor's race recounts in 2004, the ongoing recount drama in Minnesota is just another rehash of the same script -- albeit for a U.S. Senate seat that might put Democrats one vote away from a filibuster-proof majority. Four years ago in Washington, Democratic Party candidate Christine Gregoire lost the first count, lost the recount, and then won a second, highly dubious recount by 133 votes. In Minnesota, where Sen. Norm Coleman...

How the Chicago corruption story and other lavish raids on the public treasury (and trust) could induce an angry populist backlash. The federal charges against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich are only the most recent and prominent episode in a series of events which are building toward a bigtime populist backlash. Corruption in Illinois, as in Louisiana, New Jersey, Nevada, Rhode Island, oldtime Boston, and other notorious political venues, should come as no big shock. Yet Blagojevich's pattern of conduct, as revealed in the charges, was so blatant and reckless that you wonder why it took so many years to be...

If you want to contact Washington Governor Christine Gregoire about the anti-religious plaque displayed in the Capitol Building, here's the contact information.

Just in time for the Christmas season, Washington State Gov. Christine Gregoire has insulted Christians all over the world. Inside the state Capitol building in Olympia there is a traditional holiday display featuring a tree and the Nativity scene; perfectly appropriate since the federal and state Christmas holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. But this year Gregoire decided to add another item to the display. Standing alongside the baby Jesus is a giant placard designed by atheists that reads: "There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion...

This past week, Gov. Chris Gregoire of Washington State allowed—in the spirit of multiculturalism and intellectual-immolation for which the Northwest is (in)famous—a large sign to be placed next to a Nativity scene and a Christmas holiday tree (and a menorah) in the Legislative Building in Olympia, Washington: "At this season of THE WINTER SOLSTICE may reason prevail. There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds." Yes, I am truly shocked: I cannot believe that a Nativity scene and...

OLYMPIA, Wash. - A controversial anti-religion placard was reported missing from the state Capitol Friday - then later found - and now the sign's sponsor wants the State Patrol to provide special protection for it when it is returned. The uproar came as several other groups clamored for permission to post their own holiday displays at the state Capitol. The anti-religion sign, posted by the Freedom From Religion Foundation in Madison, Wis., was reported missing Friday morning then was turned over to a Seattle radio station by an unidentified man at about 10 a.m. Annie Laurie Gaylor, a spokesman for...

Just in time for the Christmas season, the Governor of Washington State, Christine Gregoire, has insulted Christians all over the world. Inside the state capitol building in Olympia, there is a traditional holiday display featuring a tree and the Nativity scene-perfectly appropriate since the Christmas federal and state holiday celebrates the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. But this year, Governor Gregoire decided to add another item to the display. Standing alongside the baby Jesus is a giant placard designed by atheists that reads, "There are no gods, no devils, no angels, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural...

Sunday, October 19, 2008 - Page updated at 12:00 AM Dino Rossi for governor DINO Rossi should be elected governor Nov. 4 because he can best be trusted to erase the state's huge projected deficit without raising taxes. Under Gov. Christine Gregoire, state government during the good years built up a mass of programs, promises and public spending. Now the economy is in recession, and unless taxes are to be raised on people already struggling — a bad idea — state spending will have to be cut about 10 percent. To do that, the people need a governor who has...

Around the United States, Barack Obama's presidential fortunes have improved significantly in recent weeks. Since Sept. 15, when Lehman Brothers went under and the stock market began its free fall, Obama has opened somewhere between a 5 percent and 10 percent national lead over John McCain. Surveys of registered and likely voters - compiled faithfully and neutrally at pollster.com - suggest that the race has moved in Obama's favor in state after state: New Hampshire, Virginia, Florida, Ohio, West Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington. In many of these places, Democrats running for the U.S....

King County Superior Court Judge Richard Eadie ruled Friday that Republican governor candidate Dino Rossi could keep his designation as "prefers GOP Party" on the November General Election ballot. The Washington State Democrats sued to force Rossi to describe himself as a Republican. Some voters might be confused about what "GOP" means, a King County Superior Court judge said Friday, but that's not reason enough to change the way gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi describes himself on the general election ballot. State Democrats sued last week, saying Rossi was trying to hide his party affiliation because of low approval ratings for...

Seattle (AP) -- A judge says the word "Republican" doesn't have to appear next to Dino Rossi's name on the November ballot for the Washington governor's race. Rossi had listed his affiliation as "prefers GOP party," referring to the Republicans' Grand Old Party nickname. Democrats sued this week after a survey showed Rossi had more voter support with the "GOP" tag than he did with the "Republican" tag.