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Christine "Chris" O'Grady Gregoire (born March 24, 1947) is the Democratic governor of the U.S. state of Washington. Gregoire's election to the office in 2004 was notable for her historically slim margin of victory over Republican Dino Rossi, who had appeared to defeat Gregoire until a constitutionally allowed second recount of votes resulted in a controversial reversal of the outcome in her favor.

Personal

Gregoire, née Christine O'Grady, was raised in Auburn, Washington by her mother, Sybil O. Jacob, who raised the future governor alone after fleeing an abusive relationship with Jacob's husband shortly after Gregoire was born. Gregoire grew up on a small farm in Auburn, at the time a rural community, helping care for the crops and livestock and working as a cook in town. Gregoire attended the University of Washington, graduating in 1969 with a teaching certificate and a bachelor's degree in speech and sociology. After college she worked as a clerk-typist and, later, a welfare fraud investigator for the state Department of Social and Health Services, where she met her future husband, Mike Gregoire.

Christine Gregoire attended law school at Gonzaga University in Spokane, graduating in 1977, and went to work as an assistant attorney general in the office of state Attorney General Slade Gorton, a Republican. As an assistant attorney general, Gregoire concentrated on child-abuse cases, coordinating with social workers to get children removed from abusive family situations and placed with relatives or foster homes. The Gregoires' first child, Courtney, was born in 1979; a second daughter died within hours of birth in 1981. A third daughter, Michelle, was born in 1982.

When not in Olympia, Gregoire lives in the nearby suburb of Lacey with her husband Mike; the couple also spends part of most summers at a cabin on the shores of Hayden Lake, Idaho that the family bought in 1979. Their two daughters, Courtney and Michelle, are both graduates of Olympia High School.

Director of Washington Department of Ecology

She served as the director of the Washington Department of Ecology from 1988 until 1992, when she was first elected attorney general, a post to which she was twice re-elected. While Ecology director she negotiated a triparty agreement in 1989 with the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy to clean up waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. As attorney general she sued several times to try to get a more adequate cleanup progress. Congress has not appropriated a sufficient level of funding to allow the pace of activity anticipated by the original agreement, now estimated to require a total of $50 to $100 billion. Dissatisfaction with the slow pace of cleanup led to a successful initiative in 2004 that requires the refusal of new waste shipments until past cleanup promises are back on track.

Washington Attorney General

Chris Gregoire was elected to three terms as attorney general and was the first woman to be elected to the position in Washington. During her time in office, she worked on children's issues, reformed the state's juvenile system, led an effort to strengthen identity theft victims' rights, worked to pass a new ethics law for state government and to find alternatives to litigation in resolving legal disputes. Her office, in conjunction with other state attorneys general, investigated and sued drug companies for allegedly violating antitrust laws concerning manipulation of the price and availability of prescription drugs.

Gregoire was also heavily involved in the lawsuit against the tobacco industry in the 1990s and won the state a $4.5 billion share of the settlement, including a $500 million bonus for her lead role. In recognition of her leadership in the fight against the tobacco industry, Tobacco-Free Kids Action Fund campaigned on her behalf in 2004 and stated "There isn’t a stronger tobacco control leader anywhere in the Country than Chris Gregoire". Gregoire was also critical of a later securitization of the tobacco industry settlement to fill a budget gap in the 2002 state budget.

She was also critical in preventing the Republican controlled House from diverting $90 million of the state's share of the money into the general fund, leaving only $2.5 million ear-marked for tobacco related issues.

Controversy arose in 2000 when Gregoire's office failed to file documents on time in an appeal of a record $17.8 million personal-injury verdict against Washington state. An independent investigation forced state attorney Janet Capps to resign. Capps later sued the state for wrongful termination. Documents from the independent investigation show that Gregoire's deputies attempted to influence the report on who was responsible for the missed deadline. In 2002, during a wrongful death lawsuit against the state, Gregoire’s office did not detect an error in jury instructions; the state was eventually hit with a $22.4 million judgment as a result of that lawsuit. While Gregoire was not directly in charge of these cases, as Attorney General she was ultimately responsible for them.

2004 election

Gregoire defeated Ron Sims and four other minor candidates in the primary election on September 14, 2004. Sims campaigned on the need for tax reform. Gregoire's performed relatively poorly among blacks and liberal whites, and controversy over her sorority membership is offered as a reason why.

During the general election against former state senator and real estate agent Dino Rossi, Gregoire proposed a major initiative in life sciences, especially stem cell research. She was criticized for being a part of the Olympia establishment but tried to counter the "time for a change" message by saying she would "blow past the bureaucracy" and bring change herself. This language surprised and disappointed many of her colleagues and supporters. She was also criticized for failing to give much mention or credit to the efforts and achievements of past Democratic governors while touting her own public service.

Vote count dispute

The election was held on November 2, 2004. The initial count showed her trailing Rossi by 261 votes; however, a legally mandated machine recount diminished that lead to only 42 votes. On December 3, the Democratic Party requested and funded a hand recount. They also filed a motion in the state Supreme Court to request that rejected ballots from King County that were not counted previously be reevaluated. A Pierce County Superior Court judge ruled that ballots should not be counted, but on December 22, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the rejected King County ballots should be counted. Of those 732 ballots, 566 were accepted as having valid signatures and were added to the existing total on December 23. The final results of the hand count, as of December 23, had Christine Gregoire ahead by 130 votes, solidifying the 10-vote lead she had before the previously rejected King County ballots were tabulated. On December 30, Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed certified Gregoire as the winner by 129 votes (he removed one vote which had been counted in Thurston County past the deadline).

The GOP claimed they knew of military voters overseas who had never received ballots from King County, saying that "wounded soldiers in Falluja" had the right to vote and bringing forth veterans to confront King County election officials; King County election director Dean Logan disputed the charge, asserting that all the absentee ballots were sent on time, including ballots to military voters. The GOP then claimed that military voters registered in Snohomish County had not received ballots, and that King County officials allowed felons to vote. Election officials in Snohomish and King County disputed these latest charges as well. Republicans said they would use the courts to block any final election results, possibly even going to the federal courts by citing the equal protection clause in the US Constitution, or having a new vote. Gregoire's victory was certified in late December, making this the first time in Washington state history that a recount reversed an election result, and making Washington the first state with a female governor and two female US senators (Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell).

Republicans continued to dispute election accuracy in a case in the Superior Court for Chelan County, one of the most conservative counties in the state. They hoped to have Gregoire's election invalidated in time for a revote in 2006. On June 6, 2005, Judge John E. Bridges upheld the election, singling out King County's election methods for criticism but saying that the Republicans were unable to prove any fraud or invalidity, yet at the same time certifying 1,678 votes as fraudulent. Judge Bridges also subtracted 4 votes from Rossi's total, as four witnesses who were not eligible to vote testified under oath that they voted for Rossi. This brought the official margin of victory for Gregoire to 133. Later that day, Dino Rossi announced that the "political makeup of the Washington Supreme Court" made it "almost impossible to overturn this ruling" and was therefore "ending this election contest."

First legislative session

Gregoire's first legislative session, running 105 days from January 9, 2005 to April 24, 2005, was widely touted as productive, producing nearly 500 pieces of legislation. This is most likely due to the Democratic majorities in both state houses and the installation of a Democratic governor.

Bills passed in this session signed by Gregoire include:

• election reforms needed after Gregoire's narrow victory uncovered flaws in the voting process
• creation of a billion-dollar life sciences discovery fund
• lifting the blue law on Sunday liquor sales
• increasing health care insurance for the poor
• raising taxes for cigarettes and alcohol
• requiring new public buildings meet environmental standards for energy efficiency and water conservation (also known as green buildings)
• providing cost of living pay raises for teachers
• reinstating the estate tax
• funding voter Initiative 728 to reduce class sizes
• adding more seats at Washington state colleges and universities
• requiring health insurers to give equal treatment to mental disorders

Transportation policy

The session ended with Gregoire brokering new bipartisan transportation legislation. The package included a 9.5-cent-a-gallon gas-tax increase to help repair many roads in Washington, particularly around Seattle area, such as the Alaskan Way Viaduct, Interstate 405, and the Route 520 bridge. This proposal was initially rejected by the House but then passed with a revote the final day of the 2005 session.

The tax package was met with mixed reviews. While she was praised widely by Democratic and Republican leaders of the House and Senate for her leadership skills regarding passing this deal, several state legislators disagreed with the merits of the tax. Their reasons included the heavy emphasis on funding Seattle area projects and the already high price of gas. An initiative to repeal the tax, Measure No. 912, was a part of the November 2005 ballot, but was rejected by the voters.

Gay civil rights bill

One notable bill that failed in the 2005 session was HB 1515, the "gay civil rights bill", expanding the scope of protected classes to include sexual orientation and gender identity in cases of discrimination. The bill passed the state House 61-37 but failed in the Senate by one vote; 24-25. The bill was subsequently passed in her second session, 61-37 in the State House, 25-23 in the State Senate. The bill was signed by Gov. Gregoire on January 31, 2006.

Future policy agenda

Speculation on where Gregoire is going to use her political capital in the next two years focuses around

• working with Mayor Greg Nickels to fix Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct, leaning on the city to contribute an estimated $1 billion or more if they choose to replace the bridge with a tunnel.
• forging a plan with Congressman Norm Dicks to receive federal dollars to clean up Puget Sound.
• pressuring British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell to stop dumping raw sewage from Victoria into the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
• reducing dependence on foreign oil and supporting Washington State farmers by investing in biodiesel fuel and biodiesel technology.
• education enhancements with investments to improve early learning, help high school students meet state WASL standards.
• energy cost concerns and providing heating assistance to low-income families.
• reorganizing the state's various early education programs into a single, cabinet level, Department of Early Learning.

Popularity

A SurveyUSA monthly tracking poll released on May 18 showed Gregoire with a 50% approval rating and 44% disapproval, making her the 32nd most popular governor in the nation, according to the May poll. 50% is Gregoire's highest showing in the SurveyUSA poll; she has polled as low as the mid-30s, in early 2005.

Strategic Vision, a Republican polling firm, typically shows much lower approval ratings for Gregoire. A Strategic Vision poll released May 21, 2006 shows a 39% approval rating and 51% disapproval.

External links

• Campaign website
• Governor's official website

References

1. ^ Roesler, Richard. "Gregoire aggressive in conflict; Democratic candidate for governor." The Spokesman-Review (Spokane, Wash.), Oct. 20, 2004.
2. ^ http://www.governor.wa.gov/about/ . Retrieved June 8, 2006.

• Seattle P-I article about her first legislative session
• "Tribes are asked to end casino smoking" by Joel Connelly, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, December 9, 2005 retrieved December 9, 2005.
• State of the State speech, 2005.

v t e Governors of Washington
Territorial (1853–1889)	Stevens McMullen Gholson Wallace Pickering Cole M. F. Moore Flanders Salomon Ferry Newell Squire Semple M. C. Moore
State (since 1889)	Ferry McGraw Rogers McBride Mead Cosgrove Hay Lister Hart Hartley Martin Langlie Wallgren Langlie Rosellini Evans Ray Spellman Gardner Lowry Locke Gregoire Inslee Ferguson (elect)

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