Gary Locke: Governor Fix-It 3/6 | Asian American Personalities

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Gary Locke: Governor Fix-It

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GS: What was the most difficult aspect of being governor?
GL: The complexity of the issues -- so many different issues that we had to deal with. When I was chairman of the budget writing committee or in the legislature I was only on one comittee or two committees or a limited number of committees, depending on which year. I could really just specialize on those areas. As governor you gotta almost be on top of everything, and you're constantly moving from one issue to another -- though we had our core issues that we always kept uppermost like education and government efficiency and welfare reform and job creation.

GS: Were there any pleasant surprises?
GL: I just really loved going out and and meeting people and visiting towns and communities all across the state.

GS: Even as of June everyone was expecting you to seek a third term. Recreate for us how you reached the decision not to run again.
GL: Well, my wife and I promised ourselves that we would take a hard look at our future plans after our legislature was all done. We went off for a weekend and we just thought about it. We've been doing this for six and a half years, two terms would be eight years. Our kids were at an age that we really felt that we wanted to focus on them. There was lot more to do, but talking with other governors, even after three terms there will always be unfinished business. But our decision was what's really best for the family. Our kids are very young.
While we've been down in Olympia, we split our weekends. We spent a lot of time in Seattle where we still have a family house. So it was very very hard because all the Republican leaders in the state were predicting that I would easily win reelection. There was no announced candidate against me. Even now two or three months after I announced that I'm not going to seek a third term, they still don't have a republican candidate to run for governor. Nothing is ever easy, nothing is ever guaranteed, but we're walking away from what even the Republicans were saying would be a definite third term. That was hard.
Public policy and politics have been a part of my being for the last 20 years. Whether as a state legislator or county executive. And now as governor I very much enjoy public policy analysis and problem-solving and trying to move our state into a better future. Very proud of things we've embarked upon but also know there's much more to be done. So I leave with that bit of regret that we haven't been able to accomplish as much as we had hoped for and there's still things we'd love to tackle. But in the end governors come and go but your kids growing up in this tender special age, that's once in a lifetime.

GS: Did you consult with anyone other than Mona?
GL: There were a lot of people talking to us, all in fact urging us to run for a third term.

GS: But on that weekend...
GL: The decision-making was solely Mona and myself.

GS: Who was more in favor of leaving?
GL: We both had different thoughts on it. We both saw the pluses and minuses. We each had pluses and minuses in terms of a third term or no third term. So it really truly was a mutual decision. In the end Mona said whatever I decide, she would support.

GS: Why did you announce the decision so early? It gives Republicans more time to come up with a candidate.
GL: If we had decided among ourselves, just the two of us, that we were not going to seek a third term, we would then have spent the summer raising money for a reelection effort. If we are not going to seek reelection, we could not in good conscience continue to have fundraisers. Second of all, in our state of Washington, even if we announced the decision in October not to run, having made the decision earlier, that would not be fair to Democrats who want to run for governor. For instance our attorney general who is a very very dear friend of mine who wants to run for governor said she would run if I was not going to run.

GS: She's the one you're endorsing?
GL: I'm not endorsing anyone just yet, but I'm a big fan of hers and she's a great attorney general and she's done great things for our state. In our state we have a law that prohibits anyone in the legislature or anyone who holds a statewide office from ever having any type of political fundraising between 30 days before the legislature starts and 30 days after the legislature adjourns. So this coming year, we're supposed to be in session for only 60 days. That means that basically from the beginning of December until the end of March she or any other person would not be allowed to raise any money for political campaign funds. If I were to wait too long to make our decision known, that would handicap her or any other democrat that might want to run for governor.

GS: Now that you've made the decision and you're committed to it, are you starting to have any regrets?
GL: Still the right decision. I feel good about the decision, but I will truly miss the work of governor. It's a fantastic job. So yeah, there's some mixed emotion there. But it's still the right decision.

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GS: You were speaking as though by not seeking a third term, you were leaving behind politics forever. Is that really what you mean?
GL: I have no idea what the future holds. I don't believe in planning or plotting any type of political career. As I indicated yesterday, I wasn't even sure that the opportyunity to run for governor would ever present itself, but I was county executive at the time and my precedessor was halfway through his first term. Then after [I had spent] two years as county executive, Governor Lowry announced that he would not seek a second term.
It was only eight months before the election. Everybody was expecting him to run for reelection. I assumed that he would run for two terms, serve his two terms. By then Mona and I were hoping to have a family and two or three kids and who knows what we're doing and whether running for office would be conducive to the life and schedule that we would have had with the kids. Campaigning statewide, running for governor for the first time, that's an incredible undertaking and it would very hard to do that and spend time with the children.
We have two U.S. senators, great U.S. senators, friends of mine, both democrats. I have no idea how long they would want to serve in the United States Senate, and I will support them as long as they want to be U.S. senators. So six, eight years from now who knows what I'll be doing and whether it will ever be the right time to go back into politics.

GS: If you were asked to be running mate to a presidential candidate, would you consider running in the 2004 election?
GL: That would be very hard to imagine. Don't know that someone out here in the Pacific Northwest could get that much attention. But who know? It depends on who the nominee is and how compatible we are. Serving my country is something that I'm always going to do in one capacity or another. Even if I'm not back in elective office, I intend to be fully engaged in public policy and speaking out on the issues. Just becuase I'm not seeking a third term, it doesn't mean that's the end of Gary Locke in terms of being active in politics, speaking out on issues or being active in the community. PAGE 4