Republican leaders ‘pleasantly surprised’ at Gov. Ferguson’s bipartisan inaugural speech
If freshly inaugurated Gov. Bob Ferguson’s first address to the Legislature extended an olive branch to Republicans, GOP leadership accepted it with vigor and surprise.
The Democrat’s speech, the first from a new figurehead in 12 years, included several unifying themes, referencing legislation from both sides of the aisle and vowing to work across party lines to “reform” rather than “defend government.”
“There’s part of me that wants to be a cynic and wants to be skeptical,” House Republican Leader Rep. Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, told reporters after Ferguson’s speech. “But on the other hand, we’re never going to get anywhere if nobody trusts anybody to be telling the truth when they’re talking.”
During the speech and in a news conference immediately following, Republican leaders were “pleasantly surprised” to hear themselves name-dropped along with specific policy they’re championing, including ensuring farmers receive their promised cap-and-trade tax exemptions and limiting a governor’s emergency powers.
The Republican side of the joint session was atypically vocal at Ferguson’s speech, vociferously applauding and standing at several mentions of agreeable policy, as well as turning to direct applause to legislators at the mentions of their names. Their support came as a surprise to themselves, in stark contrast to their groans at now-former Gov. Jay Inslee’s state of the state Tuesday, where some walked out at Inslee’s reference to President-elect Donald Trump as a “would-be authoritarian.” Ferguson’s approach was more diplomatic, vowing to work with Trump “when we can” yet “stand up to him when we must,” on issues like abortion, he said.
“Just like Gov. Ferguson said about President Trump, he will support him when he deserves support, and he’ll oppose him when he deserves opposition. I think it’s exactly how Republicans are going to feel about Governor Ferguson,” Stokesbary said. “There’s a lot in his speech to agree with, and we’re going to support him and his efforts when we have those areas of agreement.”
Such areas include limiting the governor’s emergency powers, a push from the Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, since 2021. Legislation sponsored this year by Republican Spokane Valley Rep. Mike Volz seeks to add avenues in which the Legislature could end a governor-declared state of emergency. Past efforts to add this check to emergency declarations received bipartisan support.
“It just makes sure that the people and the people’s elected representatives in the Legislature have a strong voice during extended emergencies,” Braun told reporters. “Very reasonable, in my opinion. It was very refreshing to see the new governor agree with that.”
Heavy on the minds of lawmakers and taxpayers this session is an estimated $12 billion budget shortfall. Ferguson shared intentions to cut over $4 billion in spending, while also outlining a few planned expenditures in his first year, including establishing universal free school meals and a $100 million grant program for municipalities to hire more police officers. A bill to address the former is sponsored by Spokane’s Sen. Marcus Riccelli, a Democrat, and the latter is sponsored by Cheney’s Sen. Jeff Holy, Republican.
Republicans responded with optimism that Ferguson previously said he intended to meet these needs with cuts before considering tax increases. They see these items and others as small investments compared to the billions included in the state budget.
“If the governor and his administration is serious about that commitment to taking a scalpel to the budget, we can do this without new taxes,” deputy minority leader Rep. Chris Corry, R-Yakima, told reporters. “I think that should be our understanding from day one, there’s no new taxes.”
Republicans expressed a general sense of measured optimism after hearing the new governor’s first remarks in office. They’re not letting their guard down, though.
Corry plans to keep a copy of Ferguson’s speech in his desk to hold him to his first address.
“I think we should be more about the quality of ideas and less about the source of those ideas, and I think Gov. Ferguson signaled a lot of that in his speech. If he spends the next 103 days living out the ideals of his speech, I think Republicans will not have very much to complain about and that people of Washington will be a lot better off,” Stokesbary said. “Appreciate what he said, now the test is, is he going to walk the talk? But he certainly, on day one, talked the talk.”