Why I'm Running for State Senate
When asked why I am running for State Senate, my answer is simple and straightforward : we need better leadership in Washington.
Our current leaders have forgotten who they work for and are too out of touch to listen to the priorities of Spokane voters.
I intend to ensure that our state is served by responsible policies that increase jobs, improve education and control taxes and spending. Above all, I am prepared to serve.
Over the last three years I’ve had the absolute honor to serve my country in Iraq and Afghanistan working with the State Department alongside the finest men and women in the US military. My time in Iraq and Afghanistan brought times of hardship and challenge, but it also showed me how much can get done by motivated individuals who love their country.
Equally important, it showed how much leadership matters in a tough situation.
We certainly saw that during the Iraq Surge, when I had the privilege to help lead the inter-agency efforts to improve the economic and political situation in Baghdad as an Economics Officer at the US Embassy. The month I arrived in Iraq, we lost 126 brave Americans. Thirteen months later when I left, the toll was 19. I certainly do not claim credit for the improvement – that belongs to the amazing soldiers and diplomats who I had the honor to serve with – but I am proud that I received commendations for my service from Ambassador Ryan Crocker and General David Petraeus, both of whom I worked with on a weekly basis.
I was also one of the very few US civilians to receive the Government of Iraq Baghdad Security Plan Service Award from the Iraqi Prime Minister. Winning a war against Al Qaeda requires far more than bullets, it also means showing everyday citizens caught up in the fighting that their government cares about them and is capable of improving their roads, schools, and small businesses.
To be honest – it’s exactly the same thing that our own government needs to show to us – that they care about the our concerns and are capable of making changes. If it was possible in Baghdad, I know it’s possible in Spokane and Olympia. We don’t have Al Qaeda fighting progress here, but we do have entrenched bureaucracies in state government.
It took Spokane 20 years to pass a bond to pave the streets and it’s taken state government more than a decade to face up to its budget problems. I know we can do better. In Afghanistan, I led a State Department funded Afghan counternarcotics team in Helmand province, home to 60% of the world’s opium and a hotbed of Taliban insurgents.
Much of this work included economic assistance to improve the daily lives of poor farmers and Afghan women, so they could grow wheat instead of opium, and not have to be bullied by Taliban drug lords. Since leaving Iraq and Afghanistan, I am very honored that our US military regularly still asks me to advise and lecture its military officers on the complex subject of economic policy in counterinsurgency.
My dedication to service is longstanding. It’s how I was brought up. My mom and dad are lifelong educators. Mom has been a kindergarten teacher in Eastern Washington for more than 3 decades. My father spent nearly 40 years on the faculty of Washington State University as a Professor of Forestry and Natural Resource Sciences.
Since I was young they instilled values of respect to others and the motivation to lend a helping hand to those in need – not because it is an obligation, but because it is the right thing to do. I went to Africa directly after college to volunteer with Catholic priests trying to improve the lives of children in Moazambique. I had almost no money and only a couple of pairs of pants and shirts to my name, but I also had the time of my life and learned lessons about helping others that I have never forgotten.
Economic growth and education are extremely important to me. They are the key to a society’s well being and should be the corner stone of every elected state official’s policy objectives. I studied economics first at Washington State University and later went on to earn a Masters of Public Administration at Harvard. (When I taught courses there, I was always sure to remind my economics students that we referred to Harvard as the “WSU of the East” – Go Cougs!).
I have had the ability to put economic growth theory into practice, both as a development advisor to the Crown Prince of Dubai and on investment projects in Saudi Arabia, but also here in the Northwest as a previous advisor to Hecla Mining. In Dubai, my task was to help create a innovative knowledge economy in the middle of the desert. With Hecla it was to decide an effective growth strategy for their Venezuelan operations in the face of onerous government regulations imposed by the Leftist dictator Hugo Chavez.
In both cases I learned first hand what governments can do to help business grow and how excessive regulation and taxes can pose enormous obstacles.
Even though I have been to more than 70 countries, Spokane is the city that I’ve always considered my home. I went to high school in Spokane and lived and worked here before deciding to head to Iraq and Afghanistan.
I’m living up near the Y now, just down the street from where I lived during high school. Over the coming months, it is going to be fantastic to meet 20,000 of my new neighbors on their doorsteps. Service starts with reaching out and listening, and I intend to do just that.
I know this is going to be a tough race but I’m willing to do the work that’s needed to win. There’s a lot at stake: we must preserve and strengthen the quality of our schools and put fiscal discipline back into state government in order to pull ourselves out of this recession.
Most of all, I am very excited to take on the opportunity and privilege of serving Spokane and the citizens of Washington. It’s time that we send politicians to Olympia who understand jobs growth, the importance of education and why tax hikes hurt our economy. With your help and support we will make this happen. Let’s Roll!
