Grover Norquist

MINNEAPOLIS -This is Pierce County Councilmember Dick Muri's first national convention, and after just one event he is already fired up for the rest of the week. Coming into the convention, one of the key things he was looking forward to was meeting a lot of great people, and after today's luncheon meeting he has already met with what he thinks is a great idea.

Muri was impressed by Grover Norquist's call to open up all government spending to public view. He said he was going to call fellow Councilmember Shawn Bunney (R-Bonney Lake) as soon as he could and tell him that they need to make it a party platform issue in Pierce County.

MINNEAPOLIS -Washington's 2008 gubernatorial race may be the most competitive one in the country according to the Pindell Report, but that isn't enough to get Grover Norquist to follow it closely. Norquist admitted this morning that he has not been paying attention to the rematch between Dino Rossi and Gov. Chris Gregoire, but said he had an idea about what he liked and disliked about the candidates from their 2004 campaigns.

"Well, I followed the race the last time around," Norquist told PolitickerWA.com about 2004 but then confessed he was "not focused on this race, but having watched Dino in the past he is a limited government, try to keep taxes down guy and our lady friend is sort of the other direction."

Still, he gave Gregoire some credit for signing the bill that created a government transparency law recently even if he said she spent too much.

MINNEAPOLIS - Government and tax reduction advocate Grover Norquist addressed the Washington state delegation this morning and rallied them to the cause of reducing both taxes and government spending, all in the name of the party brand.

Grover Norquist: Politicker photoCalling the Evergreen State "the good Washington", Norquist told the story of how Republicans have joined together ever since Ronald Reagan was president to form an alliance of relatively like-minded voters.

"Our coalition is made of people and groups and what brings them to politics," he said of Republicans. "They want one thing from the government. They want to be left alone."

MINNEAPOLIS - With delegates still arriving from the northwest throughout the morning, the Washington State Republican Party will be holding a delegate luncheon today in lieu of the standard breakfast. The event will feature Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and the author of Leave Us Alone, for which he will have a book signing to follow the luncheon.

Norquist was in Washington two months ago to promote his book and participate in a debate with HA Seattle blogger David Goldstein sponsored by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation.