Pan Dzama | Kitsap Sun

The room at the Silverdale Beach Hotel was packed last Thursday to hear from Attorney General Rob McKenna. McKenna is currently the presumptive Republican nominee for governor. I know the Central Kitsap Republican Women, who hosted the lunch event, tried to reserve the larger room at the facility but it had been previously booked. If they'd been able to access that venue I'm sure the room would have been filled also.

The group attending was anxious to hear McKenna's ideas on how to solve the state's current problems, from education to regulatory reform to balancing the budget. He did not disappoint and was very specific in his analyses of the current problems and their potential solutions.

McKenna, a wiry and energetic figure, identified three areas which he said makes Washington one of the ten most expensive states in which to do business: high unemployment insurance, high regulatory burdens and high workers' compensation insurance.

Steven Gardner | Kitsap Sun

SILVERDALE — Republican Rob McKenna called for regulatory and educational reforms Thursday in Silverdale and made clear what the next Washington governor should be focusing on: jobs.

"This has to be the top priority of the next governor," he told the audience of about 80 people in a luncheon hosted by the Central Kitsap Republican Women at the Silverdale Beach Hotel.

McKenna, the state attorney general and the Republican Party's apparent nominee for governor this fall, said that the state needs to allow workers' compensation insurance to be offered in a competitive market and that state employees, including educators, should be paid based on performance instead of just seniority.

Attorney General Rob McKenna has to “go dark” — he can’t raise campaign cash while the Legislature is in session — but McKenna’s gubernatorial campaign took in a whopping $1.145 million in November.

McKenna autographing a poster for a supporter after he announced his 2012 gubernatorial bid in early June. (Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO/SEATTLEPI.COM) McKenna, the Republicans’ hope of ending 27 years’ Democratic control of the governor’s office, has taken in $3.760 million since he announced last June and reported $2.442 million in the bank at the end of November.

Gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna issued the following statement today in response to the release of the Washington Aerospace Partnership economic competitiveness study:

“Washington State is blessed as the home of the world’s dominant aerospace industry today, thanks to the generations of Washingtonians who have helped build the world’s finest airplanes at Boeing and work at hundreds of other aerospace companies here. That position is now threatened both by global competition and our state’s own actions – and inactions.