Gov. Chris Gregoire on Friday morning shared a glimpse into the private budget talks she had with key lawmakers as the Legislature neared an agreement on the state’s long-contested operating budget this year.
Lawmakers hadn’t been able to reach an agreement during the 30-day special session and had just entered another session.
“It was 1:30 a.m., and they fell apart again,” Gregoire recalled while speaking to a group of about 300 Evangelical Lutherans at the Hilton Vancouver Washington.
“I brought the four leaders in my office,” she continued, “and I said: ‘Human lives are at stake. The people out there need us to do what is right. And you are going to break down over a single paragraph in a single bill that in the long term means absolutely nothing?'”
Gregoire said the lawmakers fell silent. The legislative leaders agreed that Gregoire could make the final call on their sticking point, and an agreement was struck.
Sometimes politicians need to be reminded that they should first and foremost consider the public good, Gregoire told the crowd.
“They’ve got to get rid of: ‘I’m running for re-election. I need to take the good vote, and make you take the bad vote,'” she said.
Gregoire was participating in an interview about her faith and the role it has played throughout her career as a public servant. In addition to discussing the problem of partisan gridlock, Gregoire described how her faith shaped her decisions on same-sex marriage and the death penalty, and criticized corporations that choose greed over the good of the community.
Friday morning’s talk took place during the annual assembly of the Southwestern Washington Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. The governor was interviewed by the Rev. Robert Hofstad, bishop of the Southwestern Washington Synod.
Gregoire, who was born into a Methodist family, was baptized later in a life as a Catholic. She told the crowd that public officials should serve first and lead second.
“My faith isn’t just on Sunday at Mass,” she said. “My faith is throughout my life.”
The governor shared several stories from her career, including times she was able to help others while working as a corrections typist and as a caseworker.
She said some of the most difficult choices she’s made have had to do with the death penalty. Once, while she was attorney general, she was able to lead the victim’s family into deciding to pursue consecutive life sentences rather than the death penalty.
In one instance, though, she said she went ahead with one family’s decision to pursue capital punishment.
“I can’t tell you the personal struggle I was in,” she said. “That family was suffering mightily. This was somehow in their mind the only way to resolve it. I finally let it go forward. I will leave office worrying about that for the rest of my life.”
Gregoire made headlines last year when she changed her stance on same-sex marriage. On Friday, she said she came to the decision after realizing that ultimately, her faith and values support equality.
“I had put this issue up in my head as though I was making a choice between granting marriage licenses to couples and my faith,” she said. “So for seven years, I made that false choice and said ‘my faith.’ And finally, I started to ask myself, ‘Is that really the choice, Chris? Is that really what you’re doing?”
She said the state was able to pass a same-sex marriage law that protects religious freedom but also acknowledges that “the state doesn’t marry anybody. It gives a license out. And the state cannot be engaged in discrimination.”
Gregoire, a Democrat, has announced that she will not seek re-election. At least seven candidates plan to run to replace her, including Democrat Jay Inslee, a former U.S. representative, and Republican Rob -McKenna, the state’s attorney general.
