NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Monday, June 13th, 2011

As expected, Gregoire announces that her second term as governor will be her last

Less than one hun­dred and twen­ty hours after Rob McKen­na announced that he would be run­ning for gov­er­nor as a Repub­li­can, Chris Gre­goire has revealed her own plans, say­ing that she will not be seek­ing a third term.

At a press con­fer­ence at the exec­u­tive man­sion on the Capi­tol Cam­pus, Gre­goire reviewed some of her accom­plish­ments as gov­er­nor and declared that she was ready to move on after the remain­der of her term — pos­si­bly to a job in the sec­ond Oba­ma admin­is­tra­tion, if the Pres­i­dent is reelect­ed (though she did­n’t say that).

“After much thought and dis­cus­sion I know it’s the right deci­sion for me and for my fam­i­ly,” Gre­goire said. “With the end of one of the most dif­fi­cult and his­toric leg­isla­tive ses­sions only one month behind us, there remains great work to do to move our econ­o­my for­ward and trans­form our state to meet — and exceed — the needs of a 21st Cen­tu­ry econ­o­my. I know over the next eigh­teen months that I must focus on that task — and not on the task of run­ning for office.”

Gre­goire con­clud­ed her state­ment with a mes­sage of thanks.

“I thank every­one who has sup­port­ed me over the years. In pol­i­tics, noth­ing hap­pens alone – and the sup­port of my fam­i­ly, advi­sors and col­leagues will be my endur­ing mem­o­ry. Today my heart is full and my head humble.”

Gre­goire’s deci­sion clears the way for Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jay Inslee to enter the race. The gov­er­nor acknowl­edged to reporters that Inslee’s team was giv­en a heads-up in advance of this morn­ing’s announcement.

“I called Jay, I said to him I’d done some soul searching…I said I hoped he would con­sid­er run­ning for office,” she said.

Gre­goire had indi­cat­ed she hoped to make an announce­ment about 2012 before leav­ing for the Paris Air Show lat­er this week. In choos­ing to call a press con­fer­ence this morn­ing to reveal her plans, she was true to her word. Her grace­ful exit now allows the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty to move for­ward and get behind Jay Inslee.

“I appre­ci­ate the Gov­er­nor’s ser­vice dur­ing these dif­fi­cult eco­nom­ic times,” Inslee said in response to Gre­goire’s announce­ment. “Today is her day. I will make my inten­tions on the Governor’s race known shortly.”

Written by Andrew Villeneuve :: 10:42 AM

Categories: Elections

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