Candidates Come Calling Governor, Challenger Visit East Side Carlson Says Making Meth Should Be Covered Under 3-Strikes Law

Republican gubernatorial candidate John Carlson repeated a call Monday to add manufacture of methamphetamine to the list of felonies covered by the state’s “three-strikes” law.

The last time Carlson made such a proposal in Spokane, he did it from a podium at a downtown hotel. This time he did it in front of a gutted house in northwest Spokane.

“This eyesore was a meth lab,” Carlson said as he posed for cameras in front of a small house on West Providence that has been stripped of siding, windows and doors, and had its front entrance boarded. “The time has come to turn up the heat on people in the methamphetamine business.”

He criticized Democratic Gov. Gary Locke for vetoing a bill that would have allowed meth manufacturing to be counted as a strike under the state law that leads to life imprisonment with a third such conviction.

Locke vetoed such a bill in 1997, saying the three-strikes law should be reserved for violent crimes. In 1998 he signed legislation to increase prison sentences on meth convictions but again vetoed a provision to add it to the list of strikes.

Carlson argued that the possibility of a life sentence would “scare people out of this business.” Manufacturing meth should be counted as a violent crime because of the danger it presents to communities, and to children who live in the homes that are used as laboratories, he said.

A closer look at the house on West Providence showed that its dilapidated condition is at least partially a result of bad construction practices. The house was in better condition when the Spokane Regional Drug Task Force arrested four occupants in 1998. A sign on the door said the city recently ordered construction stopped because the owner did not have the proper permits.

In a later interview, Carlson expanded his criticism of Locke to include policies involving the environment, roads and state spending.

He vowed to lead an initiative, if necessary, to force the state to contract with private firms for a wide range of services, from landscaping college campuses to operating liquor stores. Carlson believes the state would save money and residents would get better services by contracting for the work.

He said the Shorelines Management Act and the Growth Management Act should be rewritten to require the state to pay landowners if either law restricts the use of their property. Payments for such restrictions, called “takings” by some conservatives, were soundly rejected by voters in a 1995 referendum.

Carlson supported that referendum, but said Monday it deserved to be defeated because it was poorly written. “I was part of the contingent that said it can be passed and improved,” he said.

To fund road construction, Carlson said he would ask the Legislature to dedicate about a third of the money collected through sales tax on motor vehicle purchases. That would amount to about $200 million per year, and could be used to pay off road construction bonds.