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.”