Gregoire's perception problem

As a lawyer and state attorney general, Christine Gregoire was admired for her deftness and smoothness in legal proceedings and courts of law. As a new governor, Gregoire struggles in the court of public opinion.

A new poll shows Gregoire is one of the least-popular governors in the West. She must envy approval ratings enjoyed by Janet Napolitano, the Democratic governor in Republican-leaning Arizona, Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Brian Schweitzer in Montana. Napolitano has favorable ratings of 65 percent, Richardson 63 percent, and Schweitzer, a Democrat in ruby-red, conservative Montana, basks in 68 percent approval rankings, according to SurveyUSA's recent poll of all 50 governors.

Gregoire languishes in the valley with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who has 35 percent approval, and Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski. Only 44 percent of poll respondents approve of the jobs Gregoire and Kulongoski are doing. Forty-nine percent disapprove of Gregoire's efforts.

One year after the closest governor's race in state history, Gregoire remains synonymous with a question mark. The one thing people seem to know about her is she almost didn't win.

Like George Bush in 2000, Gregoire's win in a court leaves an air of uncertainty, a whiff of illegitimacy. Her troubles are more complicated. She has yet to fill in the blanks about who she is or to brag convincingly enough about the job she is doing.

Perception and reality can be out of sync. Actually, Gregoire had a good first year. Her most-impressive act came late in the legislative session when she persuaded Republicans and Democrats to vote for a 9.5-cent gas-tax increase. Gas prices were high, about to soar higher. Nobody likes the gas tax. But she decided certain projects such as Seattle's Alaskan Way Viaduct could no longer be ignored, and she spent political capital rounding up votes.

Her strategy worked, even in the face of an unsuccessful initiative challenge. She demonstrated courage and leadership.

Other tax increases ushered through last year made less sense, but those may be fixed this year if she continues taking a moderate line. So far, so good. Gregoire wants to save as much as possible of a new-found $1.4 billion budget surplus for rockier budgets expected as soon as 2007.

Gregoire also was smart to create a biotech fund designed to help the economy.

If she is doing good work, why don't people give her credit? For starters, she has had a hard time digging out from the barrage of attacks on her legitimacy carried out during the many months of the election challenge. Initiative 912, the failed effort to recall the gas-tax increase, was, in a way, part two of the challenge of her governorship.

Beyond that, the Gregoire camp has done a poor job promoting the governor. The public-relations machine failed to sufficiently soften her image during the campaign; some of that underwhelming PR carries on today.

It may come down, as it often does, to likability. Gregoire can seem too severe or intense. She could smile more often. But she has a compelling personal story to tell. Gregoire was raised for a while by a single mom who was a short-order cook. She is a breast-cancer survivor. Her husband is a Vietnam vet. She is very close to her two college-age daughters.

But who knew? Who has a real sense of that?

Time magazine recently named Arizona's Napolitano one of America's five best governors. "Positioning herself as a no-nonsense pro-business centrist, she has worked outside party lines... " wrote Time. "In her first week on the job Napolitano took on the state's budget-deficit crisis. She presented a proposal that eliminated the $1 billion deficit without any tax increases." Now, Arizona has a budget surplus and job growth.

If there is a theme here, it is that politicians who play against type are succeeding. Schweitzer in Montana pushed Democratic programs such as health care for small businesses, alternative energy and a higher minimum wage, but carefully steers clear of Democratic Party elites like Howard Dean. That plays well with Montana independents.

Schwarzenegger is in the dumps because he went overboard pushing anti-union and education initiatives that alienated Democrats.

Gregoire has three years to turn things around. She has attributes and values that could make her more popular. She is a business-oriented centrist, a manager, not a big, reckless spender.

It is time for everyone to get over the election from hell. It is time for Gregoire to tell people what she is doing to make Washington a better place to live and how she plans to keep the state in forward motion.

Joni Balter's column appears regularly on editorial pages of The Times. Her e-mail address is jbalter@seattletimes.com

KING TV is local media sponsor of SurveyUSA polling in Washington state.