State Sen. Mark Mullet Announces Bid for Washington Governor

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ISSAQUAH — State Sen. Mark Mullet  announced a bid for governor Thursday, increasing the field of candidates seeking to replace Gov. Jay Inslee in the first open governor's race in more than a decade.

In an interview, Mullet, a Democrat from Issaquah who owns a pizza restaurant and several ice cream shops, said he would bring "an opportunity for change" to the governor's race as Washington grapples with affordability and public safety issues.

"Right now, I see too many families in Washington who are struggling to afford the cost of housing," Mullet said. "And I also see too many neighborhoods in Washington where families just don't feel safe."

Mullet, 50, joins fellow Democrats Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz in the race for the governor's mansion. Several Republicans, including Richland School Board member Semi Bird and Yakima physician Raul Garcia, have also announced candidacies.

Both Ferguson and Franz announced their candidacies in early May, shortly after Inslee said he wouldn't be seeking a fourth term.

Mullet was first elected to the state Senate in 2012, and touts his credentials as a Democrat, pointing to his record supporting abortion rights, LGBTQ+ rights, collective bargaining rights, the state's 2021 law to cut greenhouse gas emissions and "gun responsibility."

Still, in his time in the Legislature, Mullet has been willing to split with his party on tax votes, including a vote against the state's new payroll tax for long-term care, passed in 2019, and the capital gains tax, passed in 2021.

In 2020, Inslee backed a challenger in Mullet's Senate race, Ingrid Anderson. The runoff between Mullet and Anderson was so close it went to a recount.

"You can't tax your way out of every problem facing Washington state," Mullet said, describing that as a "fundamental difference" between himself and Franz and Ferguson.

"I've always looked for creative solutions to solve our problems that don't involve just creating new taxes," Mullet said. "I think that really sets us apart."

Mullet points to a policy around housing vouchers as one example of a "creative solution." Several years ago, low-income tenants with vouchers from the federal government to help pay for housing struggled to find places to rent.

Lawmakers had introduced a bill to bar discrimination in housing based on income source. But many landlords didn't want to provide housing to people with those vouchers, arguing that units would get damaged.

So, Mullet said, he came up with an idea: the state would set up a fund to help landlords cover any costs of damages incurred. Under the landlord mitigation fund, landlords can collect up to $5,000 for damages caused by a tenant who receives rental assistance.

"So you instantly expanded access to affordable housing for thousands of families," Mullet said, by disallowing income discrimination but also providing help to landlords.



Mullet stresses his business background — he had a career working in finance before starting his Washington businesses — and said that means he brings a different perspective from recent governors. Inslee and his two predecessors, Christine Gregoire and Gary Locke, were all trained as lawyers.

During his time in the state Senate, Mullet has translated his affinity with numbers into a leading role with the state's construction budget, funneling money toward schools and other buildings across the state. He said his work there has shaped his approach to politics: The construction budget needs a 60% vote to pass rather than a simple majority.

"It was never an option in the capital budget, that you could just split up and a have a party-line vote," Mullet said. "You had to stay in the room until you found agreement."

He argues that to make Washington more affordable, the state can continue its work to speed up the process for developing housing.

On public safety, Mullet stressed a need to work with local law enforcement, and said the state could do a better job of sharing revenue with cities and counties.

"My experience during my time in the Legislature is, we can be too quick to balance a state budget by taking money from cities and counties," Mullet said. "We need to see the opposite happen, where we realize that cities and counties are the ones on the ground actually dealing with public safety issues firsthand."

If elected, he said, he would request legislation to change the state constitution to limit governors to two terms and to limit the governor's emergency power. He said he wants to give the governor 90 days of emergency power authority and after that, the Legislature would need to be involved in any decisions.

Mullet grew up in Tukwila, the middle child among three brothers. He graduated from Foster High School in 1990, after twice earning the title of Washington state tennis champion as a junior and senior.

Mullet went on to play Division III tennis for two years at the University of Redlands in California. He said when he realized he wasn't going to be a professional tennis player, he transferred to Indiana University to study finance. That career took him to Philadelphia, London and New York.

He earned a master's degree in public administration from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington in 2008 after returning to Washington two years earlier. He served on the Issaquah City Council from 2009-13.

Mullet's father, Steve Mullet, served on the Tukwila city council and later as mayor. He died in 2017.

His father's public service made Mullet aware of the impact local politics can have. On visits home as an adult, while his father was in office, friends would tell the younger Mullet things like "Hey, our street got sidewalks." Conversations like that were "eye-opening," Mullet said.

"Everyone just focuses on the national level" of public service, Mullet said. "But that local level of public service is how you get sidewalks."