State GOP: Stop Us if You've Heard this One: Gregoire Will Not Wait on Viaduct

Stop Us if You've Heard this One:  Gregoire Will Not Wait on Viaduct

Bellevue - Finally, some consistency from Gov. Christine Gregoire on the Alaskan Way Viaduct. While she still has no clear position on how to replace the viaduct, there is one thing that has not changed over the last three and half years: Gregoire's promise to not put off the decision any longer.

The Seattle Times ran an editorial today co-authored by Gov. Gregoire in which she boldly states:  "We're working hard to reach a solution that makes the most sense. We have until the end of this year. We cannot and will not spend the next five years debating and studying."

Sounds like just another empty promise.

"Today's editorial did nothing to clarify Christine Gregoire's decision on how the state will actually move forward on the viaduct replacement," said Luke Esser, Chairman of the Washington State Republican Party.  "And while I cannot tell you what her position on the viaduct is, I can tell you that Christine Gregoire will not hesitate, delay, or wait to move forward on telling us that we cannot hesitate, delay or wait to move forward any longer.

"If our governor's actions even came close to matching her rhetoric of moving forward, we'd be halfway finished with replacing the viaduct by now.  Instead, we're still driving on an unsafe highway that made a national list of the top 10 pieces of infrastructure that must be replaced, and there's still no solution in sight."

If her latest pledge to move forward sounds familiar, you might be mistaking it with one of these prior bold statements:

9/16/05:  "We have to say, ‘Here's the cutoff date.  We're moving forward.  If you have the money, fine.  But you don't continue putting it off and putting it off.'" (Seattle PI)

 9/19/05:  "(Gregoire) will instruct the Department of Transportation to move "full steam ahead" on replacing the viaduct." (Seattle Times)

12/9/05:  "The state is ready to replace the viaduct.  We are not prepared to wait."  (Seattle PI)

9/6/06:  "It's time, shortly after November [of 2006], that we make a final decision and move forward with one option."  (Seattle PI)

12/15/06:  "We must move forward, we cannot delay.  We must have a decision by mid-2007 so we begin construction in 2008 as targeted.  Failure cannot be an option.  Failure makes us less safe and costs more, neither of which we can afford and neither of which the citizens should tolerate." (Press Conference)

1/17/07:  "We all understand that we need to move forward.  No action is not an option."  (Seattle PI)

1/23/07:  "It is time for us to come together with a common vision."  (Seattle Times)

2/13/07:  "Today we need to move forward with the one option that meets safety standards and is fiscally responsible:  the elevated structure." (Seattle Times)

2/20/07:  "...the fact of the matter is, we cannot do nothing." (Seattle PI)

3/15/07:   "We're going to move forward by not highlighting the differences of yesterday...we're on one page today, moving forward."  (Seattle Times)

5/22/08:  "We must make the decision in the next legislative session about what we're going to replace it with... so let's get going and get the job done." (KUOW's "The Conversation")

5/28/08:  "We're working hard to reach a solution that makes the most sense. We have until the end of this year. We cannot and will not spend the next five years debating and studying." (Seattle Times)