Gov. Jay Inslee, 72, the longest-serving currently active governor in America, announced earlier this year he won’t seek re-election in the 2024 gubernatorial race.
Five candidates so far have announced their aspirations for the head spot in state government, and two of them were present in Centralia on Monday morning for a meet-and-greet with a question period at Lewis County Coffee Co.’s The Station. Each of the candidates were invited to the event, which was hosted by the Centralia-Chehalis Chamber of Commerce.
In attendance were Misipati Semi Bird, R-Richland, and Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah. Bob Ferguson, D-Seattle, the state’s attorney general who is also running for governor, was not able to attend, but did provide a biography that was read at Monday’s event.
Hilary Franz, D-Bainbridge Island, and Dave Reichert, R-King County, did not respond to invitations, according to the chamber.
Bird, 62, frequently goes by “Semi Bird.” His first name, Misipati, is pronounced “miss-ee-pah-tee.” He was raised by a Christian, Black single mother of seven children; his father was Black and American Samoan. Bird is still Christian today.
Bird began his life in the “inner-city ghetto of east Oakland, California, before Civil Rights.” He noted that Monday was the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, and said, second only to Bird’s mother, he considers Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King his greatest inspiration.
“To this day, he means everything to me,” Bird told attendees on Monday.
Bird believes America is the nation of diversity, which means fighting for equality, he said, “and by the way, not equity of outcome — equality of opportunity.”
At the age of 7, Bird and his family moved to Seattle. He dropped out of high school and joined the U.S. Marine Corps, but did earn his diploma while serving.
Later, he earned a bachelor of arts degree in business administration and a master of science in human resources.
After 9/11, at 43 years old, he joined the U.S. Army as a Special Forces Green Beret. He subsequently served and worked overseas in intelligence and as an advisor to the U.S. Ambassador in Bangladesh.
When his wife became pregnant with their first child, Bird and his family moved back to Washington, where he has been a consultant and a professor at the University of Washington. He currently leads the Benton County Republican Party, and has been endorsed by several county Republican parties in Washington, including Lewis County.
Though he is “proud of the ‘R’” after his name, he said, “it’s the people that suffer because of party politics. … I try to stay out of that nonsense.”
“It’s time to put people over politics,” Bird said.
Among Bird’s main focuses, if elected, would be public safety in Washington by changing the public’s perception of law enforcement and lessening police officers’ worries of getting sued while responding to calls, he said.
Bird also said he would declare a public emergency in order to leverage more resources in response to homelessness. He was critical of the Legislature’s “fix” to the State Supreme Court’s Blake Decision, which took drug possession from a felony to a simple misdemeanor.
The Legislature’s decision brought possession to a gross misdemeanor.
“We have an epidemic in addiction and an epidemic of mental health. We’re in crisis, and we need action,” Bird said.
Mullet, 51, was raised in Tukwila and currently lives in Issaquah. He and his wife have six children, and their oldest is a junior at Western Washington University named Isabel. She is studying communications.
“People say, ‘Why’d you want to run for governor?’ And it really came down to this anxiety that, when Isabel finishes school in a couple of years … we’re nervous if she can afford to stay in Washington and live here to raise her own family,” Mullet told attendees on Monday. “To me, what I say to my Democratic colleagues in Olympia is, ‘We have been in charge. This has happened on our watch.’”
Mullet, whose last name is pronounced “like the bad haircut,” he said, is a senator who represents Issaquah. He’s running as a Democrat, but believes the state is due for new leadership on the fronts of affordability and public safety, Mullet said.
After beginning college with the hopes of becoming a professional tennis player, Mullet said his “wake-up call” came from watching Pete Sampras, who is just one year older, win the U.S. Open in 1990.
Mullet then transferred to Indiana University, where he earned his bachelor of science in finance. He worked in the stock exchange in Philadelphia and London before moving back to the Northwest, where he earned his master’s degree in public affairs from the University of Washington.
He and his family became franchise owners of Zeeks Pizza and Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream shops. Mullet served on the Issaquah City Council before being elected to the Legislature as Senator of the 5th District.
“I’m actually the only small business owner in the Senate Democratic Caucus here,” Mullet said.
While Bird criticized the Legislature’s bill from the last session, which brought drug possession charges from misdemeanors to gross misdemeanors in response to the Blake Decision, Mullet said he was proud of the work done on that bill, and gave a lot of its credit to 20th District Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia.
“It’s a treatment-focused bill. We want to give folks treatment first. But, if they refuse treatment, for whatever reason, there is accountability,” Mullet said. “You can end up spending time in jail under the current law that was passed by the Legislature. I think it does have real teeth.”
Mullet said he thinks Washingtonian Democrats were ready for a shift in leadership, and that he differs from moderate Republicans on social issues.
Ferguson, though not in attendance on Monday, sent a biography that can be read at https://www.bobferguson.com/about.
