GOP puts its heads together

Republicans gathered in Ocean Shores on Saturday under the rally cry of “12 in 2012,” hoping to win four seats they need to get control of the state Senate and the eight needed to control the state House.

The three-day annual Roanoke Conference at the Ocean Shores convention center is, in part, a strategy session some 10 months before the next election, but it’s also a way to cut loose mid-legislative session with after-conference parties where legislators and candidates celebrated the Second Amendment by shooting NERF guns and having fun.

With breakout sessions ranging from how to use technology to improve campaigns, figuring out what it will take to make inroads into King County and how to build grassroots coalitions, most eyes Saturday were on state races and less on the presidential nomination process.

That’s not to say they don’t care about their potential presidential nominee. In fact, today, Roanoke attendees are expected to do a straw poll on the presidential contenders and hear from the chiefs of staff for Republican Congressional members.

Attorney General Rob McKenna, the likely Republican nominee for governor, said his goal was to personally meet each of the 400 or so people at the conference.

“The whole point is to have a good time,” McKenna said. “This whole conference is about having a debate of real issues at a high level and maintain civility. There is a great deal of diversity across the Republican Party.”

For instance, Republicans debated the pros and cons of legalizing marijuana, with 65 voting to legalize it and 132 against. They also debated the effectiveness of a public-private partnership to bring a basketball franchise and a hockey franchise to the state with 64 in favor and 150 against. Of course, there were some people who just didn’t vote.

But the main theme of the day centered on strategy to get their message across to voters and figuring out ways to win back the state Legislature and Governor’s Mansion.

Randy Pepple, the campaign manager for McKenna, told his fellow Republicans that the surefire way to win a state campaign is to get at least one out of every four residents in Seattle to vote Republican. It’s a challenge, he said, but it’s doable.

“Let us help people believe that the American dream still exists and is within their grasp, that they can reach out and have greatness and opportunity,” Seattle Port Commissioner Bill Bryant told the audience. “That is being a beacon and that will attract independent voters. … We will provide that positive leadership this year and when we do we will not only carry King County but from the U.S. Senate to the governor’s mansion to the secretary of state to the attorney general to the lieutenant governor, we will be Washington.”

Most Republican candidates up for statewide office were at the conference — McKenna; former Senate Majority Leader Bill Finkbeiner, who is challenging Lt. Gov. Brad Owen; Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman, who is running for the open Secretary of State post, King County Councilman Reagan Dunn, who is running for Attorney General; state Sen. Michael Baumgartner, who will challenge U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell.

Jesse Young, who is challenging Congressman Norm Dicks, set up a big table and had a welcome reception among many in attendance. Young conceded that he has an uphill climb to try to unseat an entrenched incumbent such as Dicks but said he’s certainly going to try. “It’s time we start fresh in the 6th Congressional District and I think that message will sell.”

Washington State Republican Party Chairman Kirby Wilbur told a panel’s audience that he wasn’t sure what Young’s chances were since Dicks had been in office for so long. But, he notes that he believes the state redistricting commission has set up the 6th District to be more competitive for Republicans, especially if Dicks were to ever step down.

“I do believe the key to the Republican approach on redistricting is to make more competitive districts and as state Republican chairman, I’d rather compete with the Democrats.,” Wilbur said. “I’d rather not have safe seats. It makes us go out there and sell ourselves. If we have a bunch of safe seats we have incumbents that get comfortable and forget why they’re down there.”

Seattle political analyst John Arthur Wilson — and the only one on any of the roundtables that was an actual Democrat — said he felt that the Redistricting Commission maps favor the Republicans much more so than the Democrats on both the state legislative maps and the congressional ones. Wilson said he felt that the only “truly safe” seats for the Democrats are the 7th and the new 10th. And he said the state map “made it easier and probably more likely that you’ll pick up the state Senate in the fall.”

Former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton, who was on the redistricting commission, agreed that the Democrats were too focused on creating a Congressional district for Democrat Congressional candidate Denny Heck in the new 10th “and they paid for it.” The result, Gorton said, was more competitive districts for Republicans to run in.

Wilson said the Republicans’ biggest problem is catering to the independent voters.

“Don’t give us a whackadoodle from the tea party right who wants to dismantle government,” he told them.

And he credited McKenna with perfectly going after suburban voters talking about education and transportation issues.

Pointing at a woman’s “one man one woman” marriage button, Wilson said, “And, no disrespect ma’am, but the majority of the people in the suburbs don’t care about gay marriage. What they care about is do my kids have a job? Do they have a chance at the American dream. And the peripheral social agenda issues the party has tended to get itself distracted by will have a devastating impact on you … because the young people, they aren’t there.”

Kris Tefft, general counsel for the Association of Washington Business, practically provided bullet pointed talking points that any Republican candidate could use to connect with a frustrated electorate hungry for jobs.

Tefft said that a recent survey of the business group’s members found the “No. 1 reason for their general crankitude toward being in Washington was the burden of state regulations.”

“There is this overwhelming climate of regulation that is hostile to private investment and hostile to business decision making, and, believe it or not, the facts bear that out,” Tefft said.

Tefft notes that despite a moratorium imposed by Gov. Chris Gregoire of new rules imposed by her state agencies, the state Office of the Code Advisor says 1,410 new rules were adopted last year, agencies amended 2,692 existing rules and had 516 emergency rule filings that went into effect immediately without a public hearing.

And he points to bills under consideration in the state Legislature that continue to worry businesses — designating employment status as a protected classification in discrimination, forcing half-mile buffers around orchards where pesticides are applied to crops, outlawing “workplace bullying” and requiring businesses as small as five to require paid sick time for employees, taking a recently approved Seattle ordinance statewide.

McKenna said that Tefft’s presentation impressed him.

“What he’s saying is, and I agree with, is the business community needs some certainty,” McKenna said. “What’s killing them is not just the regulations but also the constant churning of regulations — city government, county government, state government, federal government and they’re asking for a time out so they can recover economically and have some certainty on what the rules are going to be. Business owners say, ‘just tell me what the rules are and we’ll deal with them. Stop changing them.’”

Among the four seats needed to re-take the state Senate, state Sen. Brian Hatfield, D-Raymond, is clearly in the cross-hairs this year.

Brent Ludeman, executive director of the Washington state Senate Republican Campaign Committee, specifically cited Hatfield’s seat as one they would go after.

Rick Winsman, a Republican from Longview and the recently retired chief executive officer of the Kelso Longview Chamber of Commerce, has already said he will challenge Hatfield.

Ludeman noted that the redistricting commission has tilted the district more to the Republican side now. He said that the previous 19th District boundaries had 49 percent of the district going for previous Republican candidate Dino Rossi over Gregoire. The new boundaries, which includes more conservative voters from Lewis County, would tilt 50 percent to Rossi now, Ludeman said.

Winsman, who was at the conference, said he’s looking forward to his party’s support.