Bill Bryant tells local GOP governor seat within reach

Republican Gubernatorial candidate Bill Bryant speaks Wednesday, June 1, at Schmuck Park at a fundraising event in his behalf.

Gubernatorial candidate Bill Bryant gathered with supporters and elected officials for a prime rib dinner hosted by the Whitman County Cattleman's Association at Colfax's Schmuck Park Wednesday, June 1, and discussed with them his bid for the governor's seat.

Bryant, a Republican who is challenging Democratic-incumbent Jay Inslee, said he is projected to have about 36 percent of the vote right now.

“We have never had a governor this vulnerable in decades,” he said. “We are already in single digits of overtaking Jay. We can do it this year.”

Bryant told the crowd of more than 100 people he was excited to be in Colfax among his supporters.

“I jump at every chance I get to come to this side of the pass,” he said.

He touched on how his campaign has been going.

“Wherever I go, people are coming up to me telling me, 'Bill, it's time for new leadership in Olympia,'” he said. “I tell them it's time for any leadership in Olympia.”

Bryant then highlighted three ways he differs from Gov. Inslee: leadership, taxes and vision.

“They all have the same root,” he said. “The difference in our background is that Jay is a career politician, and I come from the private sector.”

For leadership, Bryant said his style focuses on working together.

“If you want to lead, you've got to build coalitions moving toward the same goal. You do that by identifying an endpoint that benefits everybody and you keep everyone focused,” he said. “By doing that, you can reach a goal that would otherwise be unattainable.”

Citing a statistic about special sessions, Bryant said Inslee's leadership style is lacking.

“If you need one statistic, in eight years, his predecessor, Christine Gregoire, in eight difficult economic years, had seven special sessions,” he said. “Jay Inslee, in three-and-a-half years, just finished his seventh special session. That reveals an inability to pull the legislators together and deliver a budget on time.”

To taxes, he said he does support raising taxes.

“He campaigned on a promise not to raise taxes. In fact, he even said he would veto a tax increase. Ladies and gentlemen, his hand was barely off the Bible after having been sworn in before he ran back to his office and began proposing over a billion dollars in new taxes,” Bryant said. “That's not the way I operate, and that's probably because of my experience in the private sector.”

As for vision, Bryant said he has a forward-looking mindset.

“You've got to be sure what you're planting today is what you want to harvest in four, six, seven years,” he said.

Bryant said he hopes to establish a culture of yes in Olympia.

“It's going to take a culture change,” he said.

He highlighted some points of his plan, if elected. Day one in office, he said, would be replacing all the inefficient department heads and re-building the budget from ground up. He said he would also place a moratorium on all new regulations until the departments can justify the current regulations.

Ninth District Representative Joe Schmick told those in attendance a historic opportunity could be knocking in Olympia, with one house seat being all that is keeping the legislature from having GOP majorities in the house and senate.

“We've never been this close to being able to take the majority,” he said. “We can have a united front in the state legislature.”

In addition to Schmick and Bryant speaking, Ninth District Representative Mary Dye briefly spoke of the upcoming general election. She has two opponents running against her.

“I have a couple of interesting opponents,” she said before returning to her seat.

Filed to run against Rep. Dye are Hailey Roemer, a recent graduate of Washington State University and Republican, and Jennifer Goulet, a Pasco Democrat. Rep. Dan Kristiansen, State House Republican leader, also spoke.

“There are people that are fighting on your behalf in Olympia,” he told those in attendance.