For governor: Rob McKenna

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Wenatchee World Editorial Board

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Ask Rob McKenna a question on public policy, and you will have to sit still and listen closely. You are about to be flooded by pertinent observations, details, cause and effect, history, strategy, potential. Concentrate, because you might miss something.

There will be no words for the sake of words. There will be little or nothing that’s irrelevant or dishonest. Listen, and you might find something with which you disagree, but that’s just more to think about. The overwhelming impression is that you are speaking with someone who has a keen grasp of the issues, a breadth of knowledge, an analytical mind capable of reason and judgment. He also possesses the kind of energy and skills that will lead to accomplishment, not to partisanship and all its dead ends.

Rob McKenna is the best qualified candidate to be the next governor of Washington. This is based not on party labels or ideology, but on observation and the conclusion that he is the candidate best equipped to succeed.

For whoever wins the office, it will not be simple or easy. We have appreciated Democrat Jay Inslee for his political acumen and dedication since he represented us in Congress 20 years ago. Speaking with him recently, we find little has changed. He’s still Jay Inslee, with all the fire and desire. Republican McKenna, in contrast, doesn’t often paint with the broad brush of a legislator. He sounds like an executive, a manager, and with eight years as state attorney general, that is what he is. Even if we sometimes forget, that is what Washington’s governor is.

In that role McKenna is a proven performer, managing the state’s largest law firm while pushing hard on issues like transparency in government, prevention of domestic violence, prevention of consumer fraud, stemming gangs, fighting methamphetamines and identity theft. This is not to mention shepherding complex legislation or successfully arguing for the state’s voters before the United States Supreme Court (in opposition to his party’s wishes).

McKenna is well known for traveling the state to meet with people, the press and his employees. He knows the issues of Central Washington, speaks fondly of his early working days in the mountains outside Wenatchee, speaks passionately about the power of the mighty Columbia and all its benefits. Inslee too is a friend of Eastern Washington. We will not be forgotten by our next governor. But the choice is now before us, and McKenna fills it best.

This is the opinion of The Wenatchee World and its Editorial Board: Publisher Rufus Woods, Editor Cal FitzSimmons and Editorial Page Editor Tracy Warner.

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Taxguru 7 months ago

Good choice...!!!

From the Wall Street Journal last week:

Unfortunately, there are some states going in the wrong direction on fiscal policy. The Cato report card gave "F" grades to Pat Quinn of Illinois, Dan Malloy of Connecticut, Mark Dayton of Minnesota, Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii and Chris Gregoire of Washington. These governors are big spenders and they all pushed major tax hikes, which have undercut the economic recovery.

Guess what the party is of all these numbskulls....???

Suz 7 months ago

You do realize Mr Hoyt that Rupert Murdoch now owns the WSJ thus giving their pronouncements all the scholarly whiz bang of Faux News. Add to that the conservative credentials of the Cato Institute and this is the kind of news only a republican would believe.

This editorial falls short in citing policy reasons to support a man who wasted state money fighting a federal program to serve the middle classes. I remember Robert Woods as a strong advocate of the less privileged. I doubt he could have joined this endorsement. McKenna is widely critiqued for his hard heart and will have little concern for anyone outside the business/corporate world. You laud Inslee for being an excellent legislator, but choose instead a business advocate from Western Washington over a proven candidate from Eastern Washington. This is politics from the gilded age when government was only an arm of the upper classes. Mc Kenna is no moderate and has proven willing to do the bidding of corporate interests.

Norm 7 months ago

"...Rupert Murdoch now owns the WSJ thus giving their pronouncements all the scholarly whiz bang of Faux News. Add to that the conservative credentials of the Cato Institute and this is the kind of news only a republican would believe."

Logical fallacy = ad hominem

"Geez clue in just a little, please!!!"

Logical fallacy = poopy head

Taxguru 7 months ago

" and this is the kind of news only a republican would believe. "

Or the 91% of Americans who are employed in the private sector by the business/corporate world.....Or all those who receive a Pension distribution because their livelihood depends on that corporate/business world....Geez clue in just a little, please!!!

Suz 7 months ago

You amuse me no end Mr Hoyt. One, private pensions are a thing of the past and two, why should the underpaid, underbennefitted employees of corporate fat cats vote to enrich them further?

Taxguru 7 months ago

" One, private pensions are a thing of the past and two, why should the underpaid, underbennefitted employees of corporate fat cats vote to enrich them further? "

Private and PUBLIC pensions are invested in our business/corporate world.......you really aren't that misinformed are you...???
Corp's are owned by our public and private pension funds, they, the shareholder's, control them and profit from them the most...you do know this right???

"private pensions are a thing of the past"

Most ignorant statement ever made...!!!

All my hundreds of clients and everyone else's I know are investing in private pensions heavily every year and/or living off them after funding them until retirement age...

talan123 7 months ago

I am not going to vote for Rob McKenna because I cannot trust him to put the people's interests ahead of his own.

He opposed the ACA act of 2009, otherwise known as Obamacare on the grounds that it was was against the constitution. Law professers were overwhelming in their support of it's constitutionality, not the wisdom of said law but it's constitutionality, but he went against it anyway. So either his views on the consitution are wrong or he did it so that he could have a better chance at winning a governorship. He put his interests above the people whom elected him.

Leadership, management, and capabilities are one thing but if the person is merely using the office as a higher stepping stone then we cannot trust their intentions.

dryside 7 months ago

I have to vote for McKenna to try to save the State. I'm a former State Employee and there needs to be a change in how State Government is administered. Agencies run government. They pull the wool over legislators eyes. The Governor appoints the Commissions and heads of the agencies. For the past 30 years we have had the same mind set. We need to get some new ideas into the agencies. During the past 30 yrs. I have voted for Democrats, but a few years ago I couldn't take it any more and I didn't care who the Dems. put up I would vote for the Republican. We need to make a break, get some new ideas and it starts at the top, when the Governor appoints people. If you want more people in Olympia, bigger State Government and less in the field taking care of the business, then vote for Inslee.