Running Start

In his bid for governor, Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna may have a leg up on the competition, but he knows he will have to win over King County Democrats wary of Republicans.

Chris Grygiel | August 2011 | FROM THE PRINT EDITION

Credit: Hayley Young

Rob McKenna in his Seattle office, photographed on June 17, 2011.

But as the Republican Party’s standard bearer in next year’s governor’s race, McKenna will be attempting to disrupt the political order in the Evergreen State.

Republicans don’t win gubernatorial races in Washington. They just don’t. At least, not in the past generation.

Ask Dino Rossi, who lost the governor’s race twice, or John Carlson, Ellen Craswell, Ken Eikenberry and Bob Williams. All have been defeated by Democrats in the past quarter century. The last Republican elected governor was John Spellman in 1980. Spellman left office in 1985, a year before Microsoft went public and nine years before Amazon.com was founded. The main reason for the GOP’s dismal showing is that its candidates usually get clobbered in King County, home to one of every three state voters. There simply aren’t enough people in the rest of the state to overcome the Democrats’ advantage in Washington’s most populous county.

Enter McKenna. A former business and regulatory attorney at Perkins Coie, McKenna is a throwback to a time in the early aughts when Republicans from suburban Seattle were ascendant in the state party. These presentable soccer dads were supposed to lead their party to prominence and dominance, but more rural and conservative interests took control of the party, and Democrats successfully kept control in Olympia. McKenna’s contemporaries have all faded away: Rossi has now lost three statewide races; former Republican state Rep. Bill Finkbeiner is out of politics; and former Republican representative and state party chairman Luke Esser is lobbying for public sector workers after being ousted by restive party regulars earlier this year. (Esser’s defeat as party chairman was a blow to McKenna, who had personally lobbied for him.)

McKenna’s continued success depends on a parlor trick only he might be able to pull off: appealing to moderate King County voters while not alienating the hard right of his own party. Accomplish that and he might paint a blue state red. “The GOP brand is severely damaged in Washington state,” says Chris Vance, a McKenna confidant who served with him on the King County Council.

McKenna is as polished and likable as Rossi, who ran for the U.S. Senate last year against Democratic incumbent Patty Murray after two unsuccessful bids for the governor’s office. Unlike Rossi, McKenna is not loath to debate policy. In fact, he relishes it. McKenna will put a smiley, accessible face on conservative policies—especially economic ones. In private, Democrats are terrified of him.