Seattle port commissioner announces campaign for governor

SEATTLE — Port of Seattle Commissioner Bill Bryant, a businessman who has strongly supported allowing Shell to base its Arctic offshore oil-drilling fleet here, announced his campaign as a Republican candidate for governor on Thursday — just as one of the company’s massive drill rigs was being greeted by protests upon its arrival at the city’s waterfront.

“I want to lead a state that is focused on generating solid, family-wage jobs in communities all across Washington,” Bryant said in a video posted as his campaign website went live. “My vision for our state isn’t about Republicans or Democrats. It’s about us, Washingtonians, pulling together so people can get good jobs here, afford houses here, raise families and retire here in this natural beauty we all love and want to protect.”

Bryant, 54, has served on the port commission since 2008. He is the first announced challenger to Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee in 2016, and he was immediately attacked by Democrats who questioned his welcome of Shell’s drilling fleet and what they described as his opposition to improving pay and working conditions for employees at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Earlier in the week, Bryant was the lone port commissioner to vote against a request that Shell delay bringing its fleet to Seattle.

Bryant spokesman Alex Hays said the campaign announcement wasn’t deliberately timed to the arrival of the Polar Pioneer drill rig, but “based on the necessity to let people know he wasn’t running for port commissioner.” He described the candidate as socially moderate, fiscally conservative and dedicated to protecting the environment.

“We don’t know much about Republican Bill Bryant or how he plans to sell himself to Washington voters, but Republicans running statewide here in Washington tend to run from their conservative records, so we look forward to hearing more from him on the issues that matter to Washingtonians,” Washington State Democratic Party spokesman Jamal Raad said in a statement.

In his campaign video, Bryant emphasized his Washington roots and his interest in education, jobs and the environment, saying he wants to ease the tax burden on the middle class and leave Puget Sound cleaner than he found it. Bryant was born in Lewis County and grew up on Hood Canal and in Olympia. He studied trade and diplomacy at Georgetown University, according to his biography on the Port of Seattle website. He and his wife, Barbara, moved to Seattle in 1992, and he founded a company dedicated to opening foreign markets in Europe and Asia for Washington farmers.

In an email, Republican Rep. Drew Stokesbary said Thursday that two dozen House Republicans had signed a letter urging Bryant to run. The letter said the state needs “a governor who can transcend party labels and bring legislators together.”

It accuses Inslee of bringing a “hyper-partisan, divisive style to Olympia.”

“His almost exclusive focus on climate change has left other important state needs languishing without leadership,” the letter reads.

David Postman, a spokesman for the governor, called the letter partisan and said those lawmakers should instead focus on budget negotiations in the Legislature.