Knowledge, Savvy Trump Suspicions
The last time Republicans tried to capture the governor’s office, they fielded ex-legislator Ellen Craswell, a Christian conservative. Democrat Gary Locke swamped her with 59 percent of the vote.
This year, with Locke waiting again in November, Republican voters can choose between John Carlson and Harold Hochstatter.
We recommend they choose Carlson.
Hochstatter is a Moses Lake electrical contractor and one of the state Senate’s more conservative members. Like Craswell, he is outspoken about his Christian faith. That’s fine, but as Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Lieberman is reminding us, people with religious faith appear all over the political spectrum. If God has a political ideology, his followers don’t quite agree on what it might be.
Hochstatter uses conspiracy theories to explain how our complex world works, and that hurts his credibility. He carries on at length about the sinister, faraway forces of “Goals 2000,” which he says is a plot to seize control of public schools and fill the minds of children with un-American propaganda.
This would come as a surprise to local schoolteachers, principals, business leaders, school board members and citizen volunteers whose work comprises the reality of school reform. They are raising academic standards and embracing old and new instructional methods - whatever works for kids, from phonics to internships.
Carlson, meanwhile, has never held a post in government. That’s a weakness. And yet, over the years voters have picked several gifted heads of state, Ronald Reagan being one example, who came straight from the private sector to governmental leadership.
Carlson is best known for his years as a Seattle talk radio host - a smooth, aggressive voice for conservative ideas in a city where those ideas are less than popular.
He led three successful initiative campaigns - Initiative 200 which barred affirmative action, and two anti-crime measures, “Three Strikes You’re Out” and “Hard Time for Armed Crime.”
He co-founded the Washington Institute Foundation, a free-market think tank.
These activities, plus a native gift of gab, make Carlson both knowledgeable and articulate about the state’s political issues.
For example, he rightly emphasizes the need for a governor willing to rein in Olympia’s regulatory bureaucracy, which often oversteps the Legislature’s intent when writing rules to implement laws. He says he’ll insist, by initiative if necessary, that the state authorize competitive contracting for government services, a tactic bringing innovation and savings to other states.
Clearly, Carlson knows how to talk about politics. It isn’t yet clear that he knows how to govern, how to win consensus in a state with widely differing needs and perspectives. But that’s an issue to weigh in November. In the Republican primary, he’s the best choice.