The Associated Press
OLYMPIA — Gov. Chris Gregoire has made seven trips to the nation’s capital since President Barack Obama was inaugurated.
That’s more times than during the entire four years of her first term.
Most of those trips happened during the state’s ban on noncritical travel. Gregoire said the trips that have cost taxpayers about $7,400 combined are attracting dollars back to the state.
Gregoire said there are both immediate and long-term benefits to her meetings with cabinet officials.
For example, she says her connections helped pave the way for certain cherry exports to Japan this year that appeared in jeopardy.
Gregoire also says she’s pressing the Obama administration and Congress on several fronts, including health care and energy policy.
State Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser told The Seattle Times that he’s not impressed with Gregoire’s claims of friends in high places.
“I think sometimes a governor can get an overinflated opinion of themselves if they’re not careful,” he said.
Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics, also questioned how much influence one governor can have in Washington, D.C. The major issues of the day, such as health care and energy, “are so big that everybody is involved,” he said.
“Everybody has a little piece of the pie, and it’s a sliver,” Sabato said.
Yet Gregoire appears to have above-average access to people in power.
“She’s several degrees more influential than most Democratic governors,” said Paul Berendt, former chairman of the state Democratic Party.
Berendt attributes that partly to the fact that Gregoire endorsed Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008 when most of the state’s top Democrats were backing then-rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“She took a lot of heat from many of the supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton over that,” said Berendt, who backed Clinton.
“I believe that the Obamas have honored that support and loyalty.”
Gregoire has met with the president five times, as part of small groups on various issues, since his inauguration.
