I attended the Chelan County Democrats' Jefferson-Jackson Dinner on Oct. 21, where the featured speaker was Gov. Christine Gregoire. It was an evening that made me proud to be a Democrat, a bright blue spot in a sea of red here in Eastern Washington.
When she entered the banquet hall, I heard a thunderous applause rise up, and I saw the governor barely made it a few feet before she was surrounded by loyal Democrats and well-wishers. I made my way to the cluster of people surrounding the governor, and I patiently waited just a few minutes while she spoke with and listened to each person who approached. She is polite and genial and personable. After I introduced myself, she asked me a few questions about my job, about my school and such. She maintained eye contact and made me feel she was genuinely interested in me as a citizen first and a Democrat second. And I did not get the feeling that it was at all an act; in fact, I felt that she wanted to talk just with me for a minute or two before I moved along so someone else could have a chance.
During her talk, which lasted about 25 minutes, she only made a passing reference to being a Democrat and the fact that she was at an all-Democrat dinner celebrating the party. She spoke in the city where the trial that settled her election took place, yet she did not criticize the candidate she beat by 133 votes. Instead, she focused on what it was like to be the chief executive of the Great State of Washington as she visited other nations such as China and France. She explained that she asked these foreigners what they thought of when someone said they were from Washington. The reply was that first, they knew Washington state, and, second, Washington meant quality. The governor's mastery of the issues and values of those of us in Central and Eastern Washington demonstrated she knows this state and all its 39 counties -- not just the counties where more voters voted for her.
One of the best anecdotes she shared was from a voter in 2004. The governor explained that this voter had approached her -- just a few months after she had been in office and had helped guide a very successful legislative session -- and said that he had been wrong. He voted for someone else last year. He told her to run again and that he would vote for her.
That experience shows that if people can get past the idea that all Democrats mean big government and loose purse strings and all Republicans mean tax cuts and favors for Big Business that there are good people in elected positions. Christine Gregoire is a smart, modern Democrat. She knows this state, having been elected Attorney General three times and serving as director of the Department of Ecology before that, and she works hard to do what is best for the citizens of Washington.
I hope she runs again in 2008, and I am optimistic about her re-election. If people who voted for her 2004 opponent can get past petty and false grudges to look at who she is as a person and a leader, I think they would be impressed.
She is our governor.
-- Wenatchee, Wash.
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3 comments:
I hate those stupid bumper stickers...She's not MY Governor. I would like to make a sticker that says....Last time I checked, she's still GOVERNOR!
After all, I don't go around driving with a bumper sticker which reads "He's not my president" simply because I didn't vote for the son--I mean him.
If you people are so unintelligent as to believe Mrs. Gregoire is the rightful, legal Governor when it has been proven that KC Elections Office found felons, illegal aliens, dead people, pets, etc. and that somehow the Queen still wins, then you are all sadly mistaken, and totally ignorant. It's not about who you voted for, but rather the lack of integrity and candor of good ole' KCE and the system itself. God help all the ignoramouses in WA.
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