Dear John:

You haven't heard from me much — campaigning is not my thing and I try to stay behind the scenes. Consider this a surprise present for Denny! He'll be surprised.

I've had a front row seat throughout Denny's career. Lots of different roles, in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Partisan and not partisan. Denny always sought to find the most effective way to fulfill the role he was in, and accomplish the goals before him.

In that way, the role as Lieutenant Governor has been no different. What is different are the goals of the office. As president of the Senate, the goal is to preside with fair and even-handed rulings, encourage respectful discourse, and foster focused decision making. To effectively fulfill all the "duties as assigned" and apply his signature goal-focus, Denny has worked with everyone from labor leaders to business leaders and advocates, countless stakeholder groups, foreign governments on trade and cultural issues, and with legislators on both sides of the aisle and of all philosophical stripes.

And he has done this well!

That's part of the reason he has such diverse support from people and groups across the political spectrum, folks who don't much agree on anything but do agree that Denny has done a good job.

Newspapers as diverse as The Seattle Times and The Stranger (and every other newspaper that has endorsed in this race!).

But I know Denny was especially grateful and humbled by the endorsement from his hometown newspaper, The Columbian, which, among other things, called him: "exceptionally well-qualified."

Dozens of organizations have endorsed him from the Sierra Club to Everytown for Gun Safety.

Groups as diverse as the Washington State Labor Council and the Association of Washington Business.

Denny may be surprised that I sat down at the computer to write this email, but I am not surprised by the breadth and depth of his support. I've seen how he works for a long time now. In fact, this week is the 49th anniversary of our first date! (Oh, my goodness, we were young.)

(Here we are at a very recent wedding which doubled as a date night. I don't know, but I kind of like the whole hat thing for him.)

I so love this about Denny, his desire and ability to work with such a range of folks and to do so in a respectful way and to encourage it in others. It reminds me that when all is said and done about the state of politics today, it is still possible to have positive servant leaders . . . like Denny.

As we enter the final days of the campaign, if you can help our campaign with a donation that matches your budget, please know it is going to a good cause and I am incredibly grateful for your support of Denny!
 

Paula