Christine Gregoire

Christine Gregoire (2006)

Christine O'Grady "Chris" Gregoire (born March 24, 1947 in Adrian , Michigan ) is an American politician of the Democratic Party . From 2005 to 2013 she served as the 22nd  governor of Washington state .

Early years

Gregoire was born Christine O'Grady in Michigan. She moved with her parents to Auburn, Washington state. There she went to school and then attended the prestigious University of Washington in Seattle , where she received a bachelor's degree in rhetoric and sociology in 1969 . From 1974 she attended the Law School of Gonzaga University in Spokane and graduated there successfully in 1977.

Political rise

She then served as Assistant Republican Attorney General of Washington Slade Gorton . In this role, she was particularly committed to helping children who were victims of domestic violence. She married Mike Gregoire, with whom she has two daughters. Another child died shortly after birth. From 1988 to 1992 she was head of the Washington State Department of Environment, where she was responsible, among other things, for the removal of environmental damage to the Hanford nuclear facility before she was elected Attorney General Washington. She was confirmed twice in this office. Here, too, she campaigned for the rights of abused children; But she was best known for her role in the legal disputes against the tobacco industry , which was sentenced to several hundred million US dollars in damages in the late 1990s.

Controversial gubernatorial election

In 2004, she ran as a Democratic candidate for gubernatorial election in Washington against Republican Dino Rossi . Gregoire announced during the election campaign, among other things, a reduction in bureaucracy, and she also wanted to promote stem cell research . The November 2nd election turned out to be a neck-and-neck race: In the first count, Rossi was ahead with 261 votes (out of around 3 million votes cast). A second count reduced the lead to 42 votes. On December 3, the Democratic Party requested a second recount, this time to be done by hand. The Washington Supreme Court ruled on December 22nd that a review should be carried out for the voting districts in King County that had been deemed invalid. This recount led to an official final result announced on December 30th, according to which Gregoire had won the elections by a margin of 129 votes. Although the result was subsequently criticized by the Republicans, who complained about irregularities in relation to the voting of soldiers stationed in Iraq, Gregoire's election victory was finally confirmed by the supreme court in June 2005.

Washington governor

Christine Gregoire served as governor from 2005 to January 14, 2013. When she was re-elected in November 2008 , she won again against Dino Rossi with 53.2 percent of the vote. In 2005 it increased the mineral oil tax to finance the expansion of the roads. According to her program, Gregoire wanted, among other things, to further improve childcare, reform the school system to further raise the standard of education, further expand the road network and provide money for a tsunami warning system. From 2010 to 2011 she was chair of the National Governors Association .

Web links

Commons : Christine Gregoire  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Christine Gregoire in the database of the National Governors Association (English)
• Christine Gregoire in the nndb (English)