Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Endorsements and editorials are made solely by the ownership of this newspaper. As is the case at most newspapers across the nation, The Spokesman-Review newsroom and its editors are not a part of this endorsement process. (Learn more.)

Editorial: Gregoire due credit for service to Washington

Within hours of Gov. Chris Gregoire’s announcement that she won’t seek a third term, the reviews began rolling in.

And the verdict is? About what you’d expect: Allies gushed. Foes sniped.

“You name it, we’ve done it,” the governor herself summarized, punctuated shortly thereafter by a five-page list of accomplishments released by her office.

Let’s face it, historians will have the ultimate say on the Gregoire years in Washington. For now, the immediate judgments should be weighed according to the political scales on which they stand.

Setting partisanship and ideology aside, though, Gregoire and others like her deserve more credit and appreciation than a polarized climate generally permits. Such people are known as politicians, a word that has become implicitly, and unfairly, pejorative.

In fact, when Gregoire declares she’s spent the past four decades in service to the people of the state, she has done just that. Advocating for a set of beliefs, defending them through rigorous election campaigns, living with the judgments rendered at the ballot box – and in the news media – these are essential elements in a self-governing society.

They are also personal sacrifices, demanding disproportionate shares of one’s time, concentration and energy.

Who knew, 33 years ago, when a fresh Gonzaga Law School graduate signed on with the state attorney general’s Spokane office, that she would be in charge of it three years later and – after an interlude as head of the state Department of Ecology – would be elected in 1992 to succeed the Republican attorney general she went to work for in 1978?

Three terms in that office and two as governor add up to a highly exposed public record which invariably includes a blend of accomplishments and disappointments. In both jobs, Gregoire tackled daunting issues and rose to national leadership positions. Her name surfaced more than once in conjunction with jobs in the Obama administration.

As a lawyer, she has taken on adversaries as mighty as the U.S. Department of Energy and the tobacco industry. As a Democrat she was pragmatic enough to target superfluous government agencies and back a needed industrial insurance reform plan that her labor supporters opposed.

Ideologically based assessments at this point are predictable. For our part, we endorsed her in one of her campaigns for governor and her opponent in the other. We agree with some of her stands but not others.

But in a democratic system where voters determine the philosophical direction the nation will take, we need capable, intelligent and principled politicians – it’s not a dirty word – to put those philosophies into practice. For such a role, Gregoire has been a worthy exemplar.

To respond to this editorial online, go to www.spokesman.com and click on Opinion under the Topics menu.