Gubernatorial candidates Christine Gregoire and Ron Sims agree that the state needs new jobs, better schools, cleaner air, less gridlock and greater access to health care.
But the two Democratic candidates differ in the substance and style that will steer them toward achieving those goals as governor.
On Tuesday, voters will choose one of them to be the party torchbearer and send that person to a Nov. 2 general election showdown against the presumptive Republican candidate, Dino Rossi, a former state senator.
Gregoire entered the race last year within hours of Gov. Gary Locke’s announcement that he would not seek a third term. Sims launched his campaign the same week. She became an immediate favorite in large part because she has won statewide election as attorney general three times.
She’s raised more money than Sims. As of this week, she had outspent him $2.7 million to $1.2 million.
Gregoire and Sims have distinctly different personalities, and that contrast underlies how they would govern the state.
Gregoire, the state’s attorney general since 1992, is a pragmatic politician, proposing reforms that amount to taking one step at a time. Sims, the King County executive since 1997, is politically impetuous, pushing for changes that would require an overhaul of the entire system.
The Gregoire method
Gregoire, 57, has built her campaign around the major planks of creating jobs, funding education and improving health care. She has described multipage schematics of how she would deal with each.
I think we’re on the wrong track,” she often says at campaign stops, pledging to find “common-sense answers” to problems.
To ignite economic development, she calls for investing $1 billion in a Life Sciences Discovery Fund and starting a Sponsored Advanced Research Credit. Those would attract businesses that create jobs and put the state in the forefront of research and biotechnology discoveries, she said.
She also wants to boost support for local economic development committees, promotion of Washington agriculture and defense of the aerospace industry. Specifically for business, she said the business and occupation tax assessed on a company’s gross revenues must be reformed, and the threshold at which it kicks in must be raised to free many companies from having to pay the tax.
On education, she has pledged to carry out voters’ wishes to ensure that teachers earn raises and class sizes are lowered. She wants state law changed to allow passage of levies by a simple majority vote rather than the 60 percent supermajority standard. For higher education, she wants to open a new four-year college.
With health care, she has pledged to provide health insurance for all children by 2010 and to help seniors acquire prescription drugs at lower cost, even by buying them in Canada.
On medical liability reform, she said, “there’s no bumper-sticker solution.” She’s not endorsing caps on settlements. “We need competition among insurers, and the civil justice system needs improvement” to end the filing of frivolous lawsuits. She wants peer review panels to mediate conflicts before they become legal issues.
The Sims method
For the 56-year-old Sims, the campaign is about one issue: tax reform. It’s the force that binds all of his ideas.
Sims proposes to eliminate the business and occupation tax and the state portion – 6 cents per dollar – of the sales tax, provide a $100,000 homeowner property tax exemption and establish a graduated personal income tax that could then be deducted from federal income taxes.
He contends that 75 percent of Washington households would see a tax cut, and when in place the reforms would generate $600 million for new investments for state programs.
“This will generate economic growth and pay for the education system that we want,” he said. “We need tax reform in this state. This is the worst place in the United States in terms of taxes on businesses and individuals.”
Accomplishing it requires changing the state constitution, which would require the support of lawmakers and voters. Sims is ready. “I’ve always led. All my life people have said I have backbone,” he said.
Sims said the reforms would pay for his plans to increase teacher salaries, decrease class sizes, increase aid to college students, provide health care to children and unclog congested highways. Without it, he said, the crises afflicting those areas will continue unabated.
He takes an aggressive approach on rising malpractice insurance costs, which are driving doctors out of practice and out of the state. Tort reform is needed, he said. If legislators, doctors, lawyers and patient advocates fail to agree on a plan, “they will see a bill from me,” he said.
The county view
On two of the hottest subjects in Snohomish County – I-5 and NASCAR – Gregoire and Sims hold similar views.
Both would work to bring a NASCAR track to the area if there is an environmentally sound location and an enthusiastic community.
“If Snohomish County wants NASCAR, and NASCAR wants Snohomish County, I will work to make it happen.” Gregoire said.
Sims said, “I support it as long as it’s in a good site. I like auto racing.”
Unclogging the highway is going to take commitment, both candidates said.
“What a mess,” Sims said. “We need more roadway.”
He called for adding lanes, expanding transit services and exploring options such as rail. Sims said he would abolish the Regional Transportation Improvement District in hopes that communities would act more aggressively to find solutions.
Gregoire said because the gas tax cannot pay for all the improvements, options such as turning all or part of Highway 520 into a toll road, should be explored.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@ heraldnet.com.
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