Dori: Why I might just run for governor after all

I’ve been goofing around for the last couple of months saying I should run for governor. Mostly, it has just been me joking around with the idea.

But I got a call on Tuesday morning that kind of changed everything. This call was from a person I trust who has an incredible track record of success in pulling off audacious things. He said that he has $15 million to $20 million lined up for my campaign if I seriously run for governor. I don’t know how much it costs to run a campaign, but it was suggested that it would be enough to get the job done.

I told the person we would sit down and meet.

I think the people who have announced campaigns against Inslee are great guys. But I do not think they will beat Inslee. You would have to try something truly fresh and bold to beat Inslee.

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I love this state. I have spent my entire life here. I raised my kids here. And I know there is a small part of me that was semi-serious about running for governor. I truly believe that if I chose to do it, I would figure out a way to win. But then after winning, I would hate the job. I think politics corrupts almost every single person who goes into it. I don’t want to become corrupted, but I’m not so naive as to think the entire process is not corrupting.

At Seahawks games and at the Federal Way live show, so many people came up to me and told me that I should run for governor.

I started doing a real campaign commercial in front of the bathroom mirror while getting ready for work. That’s when it all started to feel real.

I had to start thinking seriously about my campaign platform. What is the one thing that impacts and affects our lives more than anything in the Puget Sound? It’s traffic. I’d have to be governor for the whole state, and of course I love the people of rural Central and Eastern Washington, but by far traffic in the Puget Sound is the biggest issue.

It steals our lives by stealing our time. If Seattle wants to do these frill projects, like tunnels instead of bridges for light rail, it’s got to pay for them — not the people of Pierce County who said no to Sound Transit. I don’t like Sound Transit, but I’d have to work with them. I’d want to protect the taxpayers getting abused by them.

I would look at every single pinch-point on our roads. I would sit down with the greatest transportation experts, whose focus would be on car mobility. Of course we’d still provide buses and light rail, but this war on cars would end. We would look at every potential solution. We would support Sound Transit and buses, but we would get rid of the anti-car zealots, and more importantly, we would support the vast majority of people, who have to commute by car.

I would give tax breaks to companies that would start doing swing and graveyard shifts to get cars off the roads at rush hour. That would reduce traffic at zero cost. Government workers who don’t interact with the public would work these shifts.

Look at what the traffic is like on Veterans Day, when government workers are off. It makes a gigantic difference. We would give tax incentives for chain companies to move employees to work at the nearest location to their homes.

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There would be no more legalization of drugs. We would laser-focus on giving housing to the homeless, but only if the people get clean and sober. We would get them addiction treatment so that they could be in the housing. We would also provide them with mental health treatment; the mental health system in this state has been embarrassing under Jay Inslee.

We would give love, compassion, care, and help. However, if you refuse those things, you would either leave the state for a place where you have family and friends to take care of you, or you would go to jail. There would be no more sleeping on the streets. We would stop letting people kill themselves slowly.

All property crime would be prosecuted. You could no longer shoplift and get away with it. We would stop the rampant hatred of cops. Of course, we would not allow any rogue cops, but we would give all of our good cops the support they need to enforce our laws.

Sanctuary statehood would be done. We would welcome and appreciate every legal immigrant, but we would enforce the Real ID system. We would go after employers who aid and abet the problem.

A constitutional amendment would ensure that there will never be an income tax in our state. Perhaps we could even come up with a Small Business Owner’s Bill of Rights.

Finally, the state budget would be reduced by about 8 percent, by $4 billion. That would return about $1,000 to each taxpayer.

I’m starting to think seriously about a run for governor. I will be honest — when someone with a ton of credibility and a track record of huge success says they have enough lined up for my campaign, I’ve got to at least consider it.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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