This could be a random burp from the rumor mill, but the Stranger (Seattle’s alternative weekly, or more precisely, Seattle’s alternative alternative weekly) is reading some tea leaves and coming up with the conclusion that Chris Gregoire, fresh off her hard-fought re-election victory as Washington governor, is headed to the other Washington to replace fellow western governor Bill Richardson at Commerce.
The concern began today when she backed out of a pre-legislative forum for tomorrow and people realized that no one was sure where she was, other than a statement that “she would be making an announcement Tuesday morning.” The Bellingham Herald reports that she flew to DC on Sunday. And then the Stranger, when calling Gregoire’s spokesperson, got a hilarious series of non-denials:
Q: Is Governor Gregoire going to be Obama’s nominee for Commerce Secretary?
A: “We’re not able to speak to that so we’ll do a release in the morning.”…
Q: Is she going to continue as Governor of Washington State?
A: “I’m not allowed to say.”
If not for the bizarre conversation with the press flack, I wouldn’t give this much weight; this seems a strange departure for Gregoire after having just fought her way to a second term. I could see her jumping to take Attorney General, but Commerce seems an odd fit.
At any rate, one unfortunate side effect would be that Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, who’s generally derided as a bit of a DINO, takes over until the next general election; Owen, however, based on his general lack of ambition, wouldn’t seem likely to endeavor to keep the job on a permanent basis. (Lt. Governor in Washington isn’t elected as part of the same ticket as Governor, and has no statutory duties there than breaking ties in the state senate; Owen has been content to stick with this non-job for well over a decade.)
Update: Andrew at Northwest Progressive Institute, who’s a pretty finger-on-the-pulse guy, says no about Commerce, although that still leaves the question of her surprise announcement:
Gregoire’s legislative director, Marty Brown, is telling reporters that Gregoire did not travel to Washington, D.C. to accept a job with the Obama administration. However, Gregoire is scheduled to make an important announcement tomorrow morning at 6 AM.
A commenter at Daily Kos also reports that Dwight Pelz, the Washington state Dems chair, told him (at tonight’s Drinking Liberally) that she wasn’t headed to Commerce. Well, how about we just start taking bets on what her big announcement is about, instead?
Christine Gregoire is going to announce that David Patterson is appointing her to be the next US Senator from New York.
to Al Franken on his landslide victory!
Let’s presume for the sake of argument that Gregoire’s out as Governor. Does this mean Brad Owen would fill out the remainder of her (what amounts to a full) term? Or is there some sort of special election provision like there is with Senators?
Seriously this is something I would have a wet dream over, no Gregoire as Governor. But sadly it doesnt look like its going to happen now.
But I have to correct you on something. The WA Consitution states that if there is a vacnacy in the Governors seat more than 30 days before the next general election occuring within two years after the commencement of the term, a person shall be elected to fullfill the remaineder of the term rather than having the LT Governor fill the whole thing.
http://books.google.com/books?…
See page 83, section 10.
So its looks like there would be a special election for Governor then.
It starts tomorrow (as does MacWorld, w00p!). Is Microsoft’s keynote tomorrow morning where she could be involved?
Gregoire’s no progressive but she CANNOT stick us with Gov. Brad Owen. I can hardly think of a worse outcome.
Why would anyone make an announcement at that hour, unless there was a nuclear war…
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c…
Xavier Beccara is a possibility though.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/ne…
When I said Olympia, I didn’t mean the capital of Washington State, by which I mean their governor. I meant OLympia Snowe, the Senator for Maine, a Republican!
Gregoire is staying as governor. She was just visiting the WA National Guard in Iraq. Hence the security and late night flights. She isn’t going anywhere. She didn’t bust her butt to get the job back just to hand it to an ass-hat like Brad Owens.
Jay Inslee might run in 2012 against McKenna, but thats a ways off.