Gregoire visit about as bipartisan as could be

Gov. Christine Gregoire and many of the area’s legislators joined the round-robin back-patting over the fact that Fairchild Air Force Base was left off the Pentagon’s dreaded closure list Friday. But in the exultations and exhalations of relief, it was easy to forget the gov was in town for another purpose, at least originally.

Gregoire was doing a “capital for the day” trip to Spokane to sign some bills of local import, either because they involved local issues, local legislators, or both. It was definitely a bipartisan affair as she inked legislation and handed the ceremonial pens to folks involved.

There was a bill to mint the new “share the road” license plates, which have bicycles on them and could remind motorists to give a bit more consideration to two-wheeled transportation. The bill is a memorial to Cooper Jones, a Spokane youth killed in a traffic accident in 1997; his family was there.

There was a bill to set up a state account as a “strategic reserve” to help economic development, particularly in areas near state borders, funded by unclaimed lottery winnings.

Both had bipartisan support, so Republican Brad Benson as well as Democrats Lisa Brown, Alex Wood and Timm Ormsby stood next to Gregoire and smiled for the cameras for the official signing photos.

And there was a bill to provide state help for removing or repairing underground fuel-storage tanks in rural areas that have few gas stations. It was the legislative baby of northeastern Washington Republican Rep. Joel Kretz, and he took the pen and posed with Gregoire after she signed it.

Gregoire was really in town for only about 90 minutes before she had to fly off to Everett, another town celebrating its escape from the base closure list. Which was probably a good thing, because that’s about as long as all this bipartisanship could actually last in the capital.

Record not made to be broken

Fun facts from “capital for an hour and a half”: Gov. Gregoire said the recently concluded legislative session passed 523 bills, which was more than any other legislative session. And it got out of Olympia on time.

That second fact is a good thing. We’re not so sure about the first.

Pretty predictable

The response time for Republicans to respond to Democrats on the governor revote fight is just over an hour.

That’s about the most interesting thing to be discerned from a little back-and-forth last week when former Gov. Gary Locke and state party Chairman Paul Berendt called a press conference in Seattle to say something to the effect that their statistics on bad votes are now better than the Republicans’ statistics on bad votes. They called on the GOP and 2004 state standard bearer Dino Rossi to drop the lawsuit over the election results.

Yeah, that’ll happen.

To make sure that everyone in the state knew that was their position, they sent out a press release at 11:26 a.m.

Republican state Chairman Chris Vance responded with a missive of his own, which boiled down would be “In your dreams.” It hit the Internet at 12:29 p.m. Not bad, unless you consider that both positions are so predictable that they could be stored in a computer and sent out at a moment’s notice.

Live from Wenatchee

As for the upcoming revote trial, there will be two ways to watch it. One, of course, is going to Wenatchee for the proceedings. While some people may feel the Chelan County seat isn’t the most exciting metropolis in the world – and they’d be right – it’s also not the most expensive.

The other way will be to watch it on cable television. TVW, also known as C-SPAN for Olympia junkies, announced last week they’ll show the trial from start to finish. Check local listings for the channel near you.