McKenna working to soften his image

By Keith Ervin
Seattle Times staff reporter

JIM BATES / THE SEATTLE TIMES County Councilman Rob McKenna makes a point during a debate last week with Deborah Senn, his Democratic opponent in the race for Washington attorney general.

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Sometimes allying himself with the leader of the state's tax rebellion, Tim Eyman, McKenna has played a significant role in reining in local property taxes. He also has worked hard — though not as successfully — to fund long-stalled highway projects and block Sound Transit's light-rail project.

Elected three times to the Metropolitan King County Council, McKenna, a Republican, has earned a reputation as a politician who stands his ground even if he is seen as excessively ideological and unbending.

But now, as he competes to become the state's next attorney general, McKenna is trying to show voters he not only knows how to fight, but that he also knows how to negotiate and compromise.

He is emphasizing, too, the office's need for professionalism, and a promise not to politicize the job.

It's all part of an attempt to draw contrast with McKenna's Democratic opponent, Deborah Senn, and it's key to softening the image of a man who has seen his share of political street fights.

"He's like a very polite bulldog, very bright, very strong," said Chris Vance, state GOP chairman and a former County Council colleague. "He's never impolite or unpleasant, but once he locks his jaws onto something, forget it."

Early start in politics

The son of a 34-year Army veteran who fought in three wars, McKenna got an early taste of politics as student-body president at the University of Washington. While in office, he won students a role in the budget process and staved off an increase in the price of football tickets.

After receiving bachelor's degrees in economics and international studies, McKenna got his law degree at the University of Chicago. He came home to work in the Perkins Coie law firm for six years, before leaving for the council.

McKenna, who lives in Bellevue, co-chaired the Bellevue School District's successful $324 million bond campaign two years ago, and he has raised $600,000 for the Eastside Domestic Violence Program.
 
In the early 1990s he founded Advance Bellevue, which trained leaders for civic involvement.

McKenna, 42, also was one of the young Republicans who formed a group called the "farm team" to prepare themselves for party leadership. Participants included Vance, former U.S. Rep. Rick White and political consultants Brett Bader and Steve Sego.

McKenna's nearly $1 million campaign for attorney general is largely funded by business interests including developers and real-estate investors, insurance and telecommunication companies and auto dealers. William Boeing, George Weyerhaeuser and Wells Fargo Bank CEO John Rindlaub are major contributors. State troopers also have been donors.

Among his endorsers are most major newspapers and 37 county prosecutors and sheriffs. The Washington, D.C.-based Republican Leadership Committee has thrown an additional $1.3 million into attack ads on Senn.

If elected attorney general, McKenna promises to beef up staffing of the consumer-protection division, work closely with law enforcement, coach state agencies on how to avoid lawsuits and make a priority of prosecuting identity theft, Internet fraud and online child pornography.

He advocates tort reform as a way to curb health-care costs.

While solidly on the right when it comes to taxes and government spending, McKenna isn't so easy to pigeonhole on social issues.

He supports the county's policy of giving benefits to unmarried domestic partners, but voted against requiring county contractors to do the same, saying it was too burdensome to businesses.

When council Democrats last year introduced a resolution blasting the Patriot Act, McKenna worked with both parties to write a toned-down version that called for limits on the seizure of library patrons' records and on searches conducted without a suspect's knowledge.

McKenna, a Catholic, supports the state's Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits same-sex marriages and is now being defended in court by the attorney general. On abortion, he has come under fire from Senn, who cites a Christian Coalition voters guide as evidence he has been inconsistent about his position.

McKenna says he has consistently defended a woman's right to abort a pregnancy, even though the Christian Coalition guide lists him as opposing "abortion on demand."

"If I had to make the choice, I would choose the baby, not an abortion, and I would offer support to any woman asking my wife or me for support to make the same decision. The point is it's her decision, and it should be her decision," McKenna said.

"Rob sessions"

Politicians in both parties note McKenna's quick mind, debating skills and work ethic. Fellow Republicans call him a brilliant strategist.

Before sending potentially controversial legislation to the County Council, County Executive Ron Sims and aides hold "Rob sessions" to try to anticipate questions McKenna will raise.

"He's very thorough, and if he doesn't like an issue he's very good at attacking it," Sims said.

Running a state office with 1,200 employees would be a big leap for a lawyer with virtually no management experience. He touts his experience negotiating contracts for a private law firm and his more-recent role as the "go-to guy" for Sims and King County Prosecuting Attorney Norm Maleng when they want to explain complicated legal matters to the County Council.

Although McKenna has had little courtroom experience, Maleng, a Republican, says he has the skills to oversee a large staff and the judgment to "make the calls on big cases."

McKenna's tax-cutting efforts and opposition to Sound Transit light rail have repeatedly pitted him against Sims and other liberals, who say he has been ineffective in getting budgets adopted and in blocking light rail.

"Rob is very, very bright," Sims said. "He asks very incisive questions. The issue is not whether you're bright and incisive, the question is whether you can organize a consensus to move in a particular direction. He has not shown the ability to do that."

Democrats point to two key events in his political life as evidence of ineffectiveness: his failure to put his imprimatur on a budget in either of the years he chaired the County Council budget committee, and his inability to block light rail

In 2000, after Sims vetoed the budget McKenna crafted, Republicans lacked the votes to override. At that point other members forged a bipartisan compromise that McKenna supported.

McKenna said he was content because the compromise contained his main goal: raising property taxes by 1.5 percent, not the 2.6 percent originally proposed by Sims. (Both budget versions allowed additional collections on new construction.)

That was a significant change from 1995, when McKenna first ran for the council and it was standard practice to increase base property-tax collections by the legal maximum of 6 percent a year. McKenna campaigned in 2001 for Eyman's Initiative 747, which limited those yearly base increases to 1 percent without a vote of the people.

In the same election that state voters approved I-747, county voters gave Democrats a majority on the County Council. Before the new Democrat, Julia Patterson, was seated, two Republicans abandoned McKenna by negotiating a budget agreement with the other party.

"Let's just say he's a tough negotiator," said Jane Hague of Kirkland, one of the Republicans who crossed the line. "When you're a tough negotiator, sometimes you have to know when to fold them and realize that's the best you're going to get. That's the art of compromise."

"Sure, they got the majority, but I got the Initiative [747]," McKenna said. "I feel very proud of the fact that we broke the county of its habit of growing its budget at twice the rate of inflation."

McKenna's unwavering advocacy for greater highway capacity and opposition to Sound Transit's light-rail project also put him in the hot seat. As a Sound Transit board member, he raised the alarm about huge cost overruns on the planned light-rail tunnel under Capitol Hill.

The rail line was eventually scaled back from 21 miles to 14, and Sound Transit Chairman Sims replaced McKenna on the agency's board. Sims said board members were afraid to speak candidly with McKenna in the room during executive sessions.

McKenna's removal was widely viewed as payback for his opposition to light rail.

An advocate of adding new freeway lanes, he co-chaired the successful 1998 campaign for Referendum 49, which would have used car-tab revenues to jump-start highway projects. The measure was later nullified by Eyman's Initiative 695, which rolled back car-tab fees.

McKenna later worked for a regional highway funding solution, but the effort has bogged down over which projects to build, how to fund them, and uncertainties about the mood of voters.

Tax-cut complications

The success of the tax revolution embraced by McKenna has provided relief to taxpayers but has complicated the job of governing. Because the property tax is the largest source of revenue for the county general fund, McKenna's tax-cutting efforts have been blamed for contributing to annual budget shortfalls.

County Councilman Dwight Pelz, D-Seattle, calls McKenna effective but disagrees sharply with his agenda.

"It's been frustrating to serve alongside somebody who continually tried to reduce the ability of the body to serve, to be beneficial to people," Pelz said.

He blamed I-747 for the county's divestment of parks and pools, and budget cuts for the Sheriff's Office and courts.

McKenna says there are benefits to reduced spending and that the county can avoid cutting necessary services if it addresses its rising labor and benefits costs.

Vance, the state Republican chairman, said McKenna's tax-cutting ways "made Rob less popular in the county courthouse. He doesn't care. He's willing to go against the grain of the culture."

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com