A New Approach to State Government
Washington State, as nearly every other state in the nation, is enduring tough times. In grappling with the worst recession of our lifetimes, our elected leaders in Olympia choose to bicker over partisan political advantage instead of providing the leadership we need to get our economy moving again and ensure every tax dollar is spent wisely.
Jay is not a conventional politician and it shows. He’s a maverick who has always gone a different route, refusing to follow the party line and willing to stand up and be counted. His record reflects an independent-minded approach to every issue, a healthy and longstanding skepticism of special interests like Wall Street or Big Oil, and a thoughtful foresight about the future global economy.
More than a decade ago, when Congress took the first steps toward our economic calamity by deregulating the banks and eliminating safeguards that had been in place since the Depression, Jay was one of the few who voted no.
When President Bush dragged America into an unnecessary and costly war in Iraq based on false claims, Jay resisted the political pressure and opposed going to war.
When, in 2008, Congress was pressured into passing an $800 billion bailout of the big banks at taxpayer expense, Jay again bucked his party leadership and voted no, refusing to give Wall Street a blank check.
And long before others, Jay recognized that clean energy is the new economic frontier and the key to curbing climate change, and that the abundance of natural resources and agriculture in Washington State means we can be a global leader in clean tech job creation and alternative energy production.
The Everett Herald has praised Jay for taking “principled stands that require political courage.”
As governor, Jay will use that “political courage” to change the way Olympia works. At a time when every penny matters, he will work to root out wasteful spending and implement quality improvement measures, sometimes called lean management or Six Sigma, that have successfully helped local businesses such as Virginia Mason and Boeing make more efficient use of their people and resources. As someone who hasn’t been mired in the bureaucracies of Olympia, Jay is willing to rock the boat, bring in new talent and cut through the ranks of middle management.
Jay recognizes that the legacies of such great Washington leaders as former governors Al Rosellini, who built the 520 bridge, and Dan Evans, who built our amazing community college system, is threatened. They were visionaries in their own right, often fighting against those who argued it wasn’t the right time or the right place. But they knew the fight was worthwhile and forged ahead. Jay believes now, more than ever, we need to restore the basic sense of communal, bipartisan optimism that will allow us to move forward together in so many ways – in technology, in education, in transportation.
