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| John Carlson, Republican |
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| Candidate: Governor |
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| John Carlson |
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| Age: 41 |
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| Residence: Bellevue |
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| Occupation: |
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Former radio and television commentator, syndicated columnist, president of the Washington Institute |
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| Education: |
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B.A. in political science, University of Washington |
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| Political history: |
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Chaired three successful statewide initiative campaigns, including America's first "Three strikes, you're out" |
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| Endorsements: |
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Associated General Contractors, Washington Association of Realtors, Building Industry Association of Washington |
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| Campaign Web site: http://www.johncarlson.org |
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| Campaign theme: Leadership. For a change. |
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| 1. |
What is your position on the initiatives proposed on this year's November ballot? |
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I-713 - Animal trapping |
no |
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I-722 - Property taxes |
yes |
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I-728 - School district financing |
no |
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I-729 - Charter schools |
yes |
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I-732 - Teacher raises |
no |
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I-745 - Transportation funding |
yes |
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| 2. |
Do you favor changing any existing gun laws? If so, explain. |
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Almost 90 percent of guns used to commit crimes are stolen. We should make gun theft a five-year felony. |
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| 3. |
What would you do to preserve Washington's endangered salmon species? |
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My plan to save the endangered salmon includes: setting goals on replenishing salmon runs so we know when we are successful; removing all nets, tribal and commercial, from our state's rivers and compensating netters for lost income; encouraging local solutions; vigorously enforcing our pollution laws; and keeping the Snake River dams in place. |
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| 4. |
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has declared blanket primary elections like Washington's violate political parties' constitutional rights, what form of new primary election system would you propose adopting? |
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I believe the Supreme Court's decision will discourage voter turn out by independent voters, which I regret. We should follow the law by registering voters by party and move the primary to the spring. |
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| 5. |
A judge struck down Initiative 695's provision that would have required a public vote for all tax and fee increases. Would you support a Constitutional amendment that would require the public vote? Why or why not? |
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Yes, voter approval should be required for all future tax increases. School districts require voter approval to raise taxes temporarily, so why shouldn't state and local government get public approval when they want to raise taxes permanently? Voter approval will force government to operate more efficiently. |
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| 6. |
Do you support allowing state services to be contracted out to private firms? Why or why not? |
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Yes, we should allow state services to be contracted out to the private sector. Most other states and local governments have done this for years. The government would run more efficiently for less money, saving taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars that could be spent hiring teachers or unclogging congestion. |
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| 7. |
A commission studying transportation funding says a new financing mechanism is needed to keep Washington transportation projects on track. How would you propose financing future transportation projects? |
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Before spending more money, we need to get the state Department of Transportation to operate more efficiently. Additional funding for road improvements and expansion should then come from an existing, bondable revenue source linked to driving, such as a portion of the sales tax on new cars. |
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| 8. |
With some states reconsidering the death penalty, what is your position and what changes, if any, do you think are needed in Washington's law? Under what circumstances would you support a moratorium? |
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Washington's death-penalty law specifically targets "the worst of the worst" murderers, such as Charles Campbell and child killer Westley Allan Dodd. The only changes I would make would be to shorten the endless appeals process that allowed Mitchell Rupe to escape execution 18 years after he murdered two women. |
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| 9. |
Do you think any innocent person has been executed in Washington? |
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An innocent person may have been executed in the early 1900s, but DNA evidence today helps ensure a defendant's guilt or innocence. It would be wrong to spare a Ted Bundy because of a mistake in another case elsewhere. |
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| 10. |
What would you do to improve the economy in rural Washington? |
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The economy in Eastern Washington is suffering. The cure is a lower tax and regulatory burden on business, a new approach to water management that focuses on science, not politics, and the protection of the Snake River dams, the breaching of which would decimate the Columbia Basin economy. |
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