Gop Quintet Makes Early Campaign Noises Wenatchee’s Dale Foreman, Others, Sound Off About Replacing Gov. Lowry

The state needs a bold leader ready to cut the budget, reduce the number of government employees and do battle with the state teachers union, House Majority Leader Dale Foreman said Saturday.

Sound like a part of a campaign speech? It was.

Foreman and four other Republicans interested in being this state’s next governor got an early start on the 1996 election season with brief speeches to 175 people at a GOP State Committee luncheon in Spokane.

“Mike Lowry is a disaster. He has to go,” said Foreman, R-Wenatchee, referring to the state’s Democratic governor.

Foreman, the chief budget negotiator for the House in the last session, said another $1 billion can be cut from the $17.5 billion state budget.

The state needs a governor strong enough to cut 10,000 jobs and to take on the Washington Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union, he said.

King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng said he would make government responsive to the citizens who pay for it and called the state Department of Social and Health Services an agency in particular need of change.

“I believe that DSHS is a dysfunctional institution,” he said.

“I pledge to you as governor to dismantle DSHS … and put it back together in a different form that will empower parents and strengthen families.”

State Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, said she will stand on her conservative record to make it to the governor’s mansion. She said she would like to see performance and management audits of state agencies to make them more accountable to the public.

She also said she has a gender advantage if state Attorney General Christine Gregoire turns out to be the Democratic candidate for governor next year.

“We need a candidate who can defeat a statewide elected official, and I can beat Chris Gregoire,” Roach said.

Economics, education and fighting youth violence are some of the issues that Jim Waldo, a GOP activist and Tacoma lawyer, would like to focus on.

“We are in competition with other states and countries for investments, for jobs, for economic opportunities,” he said.

Washington is less and less competitive and that’s forcing mid-size businesses to move out of the state, he said.

Bob Tharp, a former Flying Tiger from southwestern Washington, was a GOP candidate for governor in 1992.

“Now, the grassroots people are telling me once again I can win,” he said.

Tharp said the state should resist a move to impose an income tax; property taxes should be fixed at a reasonable amount; and small businesses should be spared oppressive taxation and regulation.

In other business, the GOP State Committee voted to select half of its 36 delegates to the Republican National Convention in the state caucuses and half in the state presidential preference primary, said Todd Myers, communications director for the state party.

On the first Tuesday in March, caucuses would choose two delegates from each congressional district. In the March 26 primary, nine at-large delegates and one delegate from each congressional district would be elected, he said.