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

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Gary Locke: Governor Fix-It

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GS: How did you meet Mona?
GL: It was kind of a blind date. Two families brought us together. My legislative assistant and her husband knew a TV anchor that worked with Mona. So those two families invited us over for a dinner party, just us six.

GS: What year was that?
GL: I was in the state legislature at the time and Mona had just arrived in town. That was in January, February of 1992.

GS: So you had been dating quite a while before you got married.
GL: Actually we got married in October of '94, so we dated about two years.

GS: Are you close to her family?
GL: Yeah. Her brother lives up in the Seattle area, so our two families do a lot together.

GS: How about your family?
GL: My mom and dad still live in the same house that they moved to when I was six years old.

GS: In the housing project?
GL: We moved from the housing project to our own house when I was six years old.

GS: How do you stay in shape?
GL: Walking fast from one event to the next.

GS: Is that it?
GL: That's about it. I'm learning golf. Mona and I just took up golf about four and a half years ago, but we don't really have that much time to play golf with the kids and all.

GS: Any other pastimes?
GL: I like swimming, but it's very hard to find regularly scheduled exercise time with the schedule I have.

GS: Are you a Mariners fan?
GL: Yeah.

GS: Why did they not make the playoffs?
GL: [Laughs] They went in a big slump. The pitching was good. The bullpen kind of faltered a bit in the end. A lot of our key players, including Ichiro, went into a slump there for a while.

GS: Do you have a prescription for next year?
GL: No. Otherwise they'd hire me to be general manager or director of operations.

GS: You've mentioned encouraging other Asian American to get into politics. Is there a special role that Asian Americans can play in the national dialogue?
GL: I think our native cultures have emphasized respect for our elders, care of our elders, but also focusing on education. But my overall response is that Asian Americans are part and parcel of the great success of America. Our grandparents came over in the 1800s to work in the railroads, work the lumber camps, goldmines, worked in the canneries, farmland that most people thought could never raise a crop, worked as merchants in cities that were just emerging. They fought in world wars, died for our freedoms and our liberties. Asian Americans have given our blood, sweat and tears to the communities and to this country. There's a prosperity that we on the west coast enjoy. So much of the prosperity and progress of the western states is because of the blood, sweat and tears of Asian Americans. From doing the dirty work to fighting in our world wars and contribuuting to our society now as doctors, researchers, people in high tech, as innovators, in all different professions. We have every right, indeed a responsbility, to help set the policies that will move our communities and our nation forward.

GS: We know you don't want to speculate, but if you did run and become President, what would your be your main goals, the things you really want to achieve as president?
GL: [Laughs] I'm not thinking about that. I'm Governor of the state of Washington. What would I like any president to do? I think we need to focus on improving the educational system of our country. We need to solve the healthcare crisis in our country. We should not be giving trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the very wealthy when we need to provide presription drug coverage to all seniors under medicare. We need to make sure every person has healthcare. I'm not advocating a nationalized system like Canada. There is no way that the most propserous, innovative, advanced country cannot figure out a way to make sure that every person has healthcare.

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GS: We need to focus on the environment too. We need to focus on global warming. That's having a major impact on our state. We will see more floods in the winter. More droughts in the summer. Less water for drinking. Less water for fish. There are so many issues that the president needs to focus on, education, healthcare, environment.
GL: And people want to work. Americans are hardworking people. They want jobs. They're willing to work. I love work. I love working with my hands and I love public policy. And I have cousins and uncles and aunts who build Boeing airplanes and people who are scientists and people who are Microsoft engineers and software developers. People want jobs. We've got to figure out how to get more people to work.

GS: Speaking of Microsoft, people seem to think there's a special friendship between you and Bill Gates.
GL: I've gotten to know Bill Gates over the years. A little bit before I was running for Governor. But I have really gotten to know him much more because Mona and Melinda Gates are friends. I appointed Melinda Gates and my wife Mona to co-chair the Governor's Commission on Early Learning. Since then Mona has created a separate 501(c)(3) foundation from some initial seed funding from the Gates Foundation, but she's helped raise a lot of money on her own to help advance the work of the foundation.

GS: There seems to be a lot of similarities between your views on social issues.
GL: I think there are some similarities. I think Bill Gates and his father don't believe in these huge tax cuts. Certainly they don't believe in eliminating the inheritance tax. Bill Gates believes that he's going to give away most of his wealth and leave a little bit to his kids, but he expects his kids to learn the value of hard work. And he very much cares about healthcare issues across the world and is focsing on healthcare and reducing poverty around the world. But he's also focused on education and the power of technology to improve education.