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Career politicians have been running the government in Olympia for far too long. It’s time we elect more ‘We the People’ into government positions.

Loren Culp is an avid defender of citizens rights and defender of the Constitution.
After his military service, he was a small business owner for more than 20 years. He knows how excessive taxes and regulations hurt all businesses large and small. As the current Police Chief in Republic, WA, and former narcotics detective, he is on the front lines of the opioid and meth crisis and has been for many years. He has seen lives ruined by drug abuse, but he has also helped turn lives around. It takes tough enforcement and compassionate treatment to help others make a change for the better. Loren has real world experience and his common sense approach addressing these issues, coupled with a track record of positive change, are just a few reasons to Elect Loren Culp for Governor in 2020.

Loren believes strongly in our founding documents because they protect all citizens equally.
The Declaration of Independence states that governments are instituted to protect citizen’s rights. For far too long what we’ve seen out of Olympia is exactly the opposite. We currently have a Governor and Attorney General who will not hesitate to violate their oaths of office. They actively support laws that clearly violate citizen’s rights and have no problem raising taxes on hard-working Washingtonians.

When you elect Loren Culp for Governor, you will have a Governor who will protect your rights. Loren has a PROVEN record of keeping his oath of office and standing up for the citizens he works for.

In November of 2018, Loren was the first Police Executive to take a stand against the gun restriction initiative i1639 which he believes is unconstitutional.
The Washington State Constitution says, “The right of the individual citizen to bear arms in defense of himself or the state shall not be impaired”. The Declaration of Independence declares that governments are instituted to protect citizen’s rights.

It is this principle that guided Loren’s actions to say “No” to i1639. If we would have had police that stood by this principle to do what is right and protect citizen’s rights, as Loren did, Rosa Parks would not have been taken to jail and millions of Jews would not have been sent to their deaths.

This stance threw him into the public spotlight. Since then he has been speaking across the state to educate the citizens and elected leaders about the dangers of violating citizen’s rights no matter what the issue.

Contact

Campaign Manager: Christopher Gergen

Email:

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Offices

Culp for Governor
855 Trosper Rd. SW
Suite 108-382
Tumwater, WA 98512
Phone: 509-496-8022

Web

Campaign Site, Twitter, Facebook

Politics

Source: none

Issues

Governance

State Budget & Budget Process

Washington has three state budgets: Operating, Transportation and Capital Construction. The Operating Budget is the largest, accounting for about $55 billion every standard two-year budget cycle. The Transportation and Capital Construction are much smaller. Combined, they account for less than half the Operating Budget.

Right now, Olympia faces budget issues that it hasn’t faced since the 2008 “Great Recession.” As I’ve said previously, the state is facing a “cash deficiency” and overall budget shortfall because of the current Governor’s actions. His “lockdown” proclamations have pushed Washington’s economy into crisis.

As a result, we must trim state spending. Trim the state budgets. And these adjustments don’t have to be drastic—we can adjust to lower current tax receipts by trimming back to 2017 or 2016 spending levels.

Our state government was able to deliver basic education and essential services effectively at 2016 and 2017 levels. We should be able to maintain those core operations of government while returning to those recent spending levels.

Under state law, the current Governor has a few crude budget tools to respond to the economic downturn he’s created. One of those crude tools is implementing across-the-board budget cuts to state agencies. While this may sound like a simple solution, it’s really not the best way to trim our budget sails.

The best way to trim budgets is to use what policymakers call “programmatic” adjustments. This is the opposite of across-the-board cuts.

Programmatic adjustments require the legislature—which, right now in the Fall of 2020, would need to be called into special session—to do hard work. Legislative budget writers review thousands of programs and projects, line by line, and make informed decisions about ranking each by importance. Then, those budget writers need to make another set of informed decisions about how much money (the technical term is “allotments”) to trim. Generally, they start from the bottom of the priority list and work up.

This strategy works. It worked recently, when the state’s Transportation Budget had to be adjusted by some $450 million to match the expected tax receipt drop, resulting from $30 car tabs initiative. Even though that initiative hasn’t taken effect yet, the legislative budget writers were able to make the necessary adjustments without cutting essential Transportation services.

We need to do the same thing with the Operating Budget. It’s much bigger and will require more hard work. But that’s the work Olympia should be doing. Not just calling press conferences!

The current Governor should have called the legislature into special session months ago—to focus on necessary budget adjustments. By playing politics and refusing to work with the legislature, he’s making the state’s “cash deficiency” problem worse. This is a shameful failure to solve our budget issues.

Reducing Government Over Regulation

When we talk about “overregulation” in Washington—which is a real problem—we need to step back and look at the big picture.

In Washington, the “law” means the State Constitution and the Revised Code of Washington (RCW). Changes or additions to these documents must be approved by the people and/or the state legislature and the Governor. Washington courts can raise questions about the law—and even reject sections of it—but can’t write state law.

Only the legislature and the Governor, with the support of the people, can write state law.

Underneath state law, there are various types of lesser state rules, recommendations, guidelines and executive orders. These are all inferior to state law. Some may have “the power of law” or be treated by courts as an extension of the law. But they are NOT state law.

The main document containing these lesser rules is the Washington Administrative Code (WAC). The WAC is the handbook that state agencies follow for implementing their duties, described in state law. The WAC is written by agency bureaucrats, for agency bureaucrats. No legislator ever votes for sections of the WAC, no Governor ever signs them. The people never vote on the WAC.

It’s the WAC that causes nearly all of the problems that we think of as “overregulation” in this state.

A lot of the problems caused by the WAC involve how state agencies issue various types of permits. Some permits to individuals, some permits to businesses. Some building permits, some operating permits. The permitting process in Washington state needs to be simplified, streamlined and made more rational. We want to maintain a clean and safe environment. However, agencies have written so many sections of WAC related to issuing permits that the process has become nonsensical. It needs to be reformed.

As Governor, one of my first priorities will be reform the permitting processes in Washington state. Get rid of the needless duplication and delays, restore common sense to the relevant sections of the WAC.

We also need to reform the way WAC sections are written. Right now, too many state agencies have what they call “rulemaking authority” to write new sections of the WAC with no legislative oversight. Some of this rulemaking authority is allowed in the RCW—by law—but some has been granted by executive order…or by agencies themselves, just claiming it under little or no legal authority. That will end.

As Governor, I will also seek broader reforms to how the WAC is written and maintained. I will limit state agencies’ “rulemaking authority” to a few, clearly defined situations. And I will support so-called “sunset clauses” that put expiration dates on WAC sections. Right now, WAC sections NEVER expire—so the document is constantly growing, like some kind of alien life form! ALL sections of the WAC should expire within two years, unless the legislature exercises its proper constitutional oversight and votes to allow certain sections to last longer or be permanent.

Taxation

Washington doesn’t have a tax problem. It has a spending problem. State spending has almost doubled in the last eight years.

Most Washington citizens have heard about the plans the current Governor and his minions in Olympia have for raising taxes. They want to create a new state income tax—a tax the has historically been rejected by Washington citizens over 10 times. They want to raise fuel prices by adding a “carbon tax” to existing gasoline taxes. They want to raise taxes on Washington businesses. And they want to raise property taxes—AGAIN! 

The people in this state that I’ve talked to over the last year are against all of these tax schemes. And so am I.

As Governor, I will veto any of these bad ideas that come to my desk.

Facing a “cash deficiency” and overall budget shortfall because of the current Governor’s actions, the state should NOT move directly to raising taxes. It should trim its spending. And these adjustments don’t have to be drastic—we can adjust to lower current tax receipts by trimming back to 2017 or 2016 spending levels.

Our state government was able to deliver basic education and essential services effectively at 2016 and 2017 levels. We should be able to maintain those core operations of government while returning to those recent spending levels.

On a broader level, I’m tired of seeing the Olympia establishment using various types of “crisis” to justify raising taxes. It’s an old trick that tax-and-spenders in this state have been using for years. Decades, even. This will end when I am Governor.

Finally, we hear a lot from tax-and-spenders that Washington has a “regressive” state tax structure. Some complain that we have the “most regressive” tax structure in the United States. But these same tax-and-spenders turn around and promote new taxes, like the “carbon tax” and property tax hikes, that are regressive. They fall most heavily on poor people and working people.

The best way to avoid “regressive” taxes is to stop raising taxes, period. And, going forward, we should look for ways to make state taxes flatter and fairer.

That’s MY approach to tax policy.

Civil Rights

Protection of Citizen Rights

Attacks on religion, freedom of speech, due process and the 2nd Amendment are at an all-time high, while the State government ignores lawlessness in our major cities, invades our privacy and interferes in parenting.  This is unacceptable.  The government is accountable to and serves the people as directed by our Constitution—not the other way around. 

Loren’s Solutions

Principle-based Leadership.  I will not sign any bill into law that does not pass three specific key tests:

1. Is it Constitutional?  Does the bill on my desk violate the United States Constitution or the Washington State Constitution?  If it infringes on our basic rights, I won’t sign it.
2. Will it demonstrably benefit the citizens of Washington?  If a bill has no clear outcomes that benefit the citizens of Washington, I won’t sign it.
3. Can we afford it?  If a bill comes across my desk that requires the state to raise taxes and fees to pay for it, I won’t sign it.

Public Accountability.  Use town halls, events, and other public meetings to promote citizen involvement and awareness, and give the voice back to the citizens

Courage.  I will encourage our legislators, local leadership, and elected law-enforcement officers to challenge every initiative, bill, or law which clearly infringes on Federal or State Constitutional rights. 

Economy

Unions

When I’m talking with Washington voters, I get asked a lot of questions about my positions on union labor. The most frequent question is, “Do you support ‘Right to Work’ legislation?” Let me answer that question right away:

I will never sign any Right to Work legislation. That is my commitment to our wonderful union workers and their families.

I believe in the value and importance of collective bargaining and I believe an honest day’s work is worth an honest day’s wage. It’s the most important mechanism we have for determining the price and terms of different types of work in our economy. And in our society.

From a purely economic perspective, collective bargaining is a more effective way to determine these prices and terms of labor than any laws or regulations passed by politicians. Collective bargaining, at its best, is the free market speaking because a rising tide lifts all boats!

That said, I do have concerns about some government-employee union activity. These unions are very politically partisan—much more than private-sector unions.

When they get involved in politics, private-sector unions—electricians, carpenters, plumbers, pipefitters, metal workers, transportation workers, teamsters, longshoremen, etc.—tend to be open-minded and talk to policymakers from all sides. Government-employee unions tend to support politicians from just one side of the aisle. This is troubling.

And this isn’t a new thing. In the mid-1900s, President Franklin D. Roosevelt—who was a liberal Democrat—expressed concerns about government-employee unions becoming too partisan. So, he opposed their formation.

I don’t oppose government-employee unions like FDR did. However, I would like to see those groups broaden their approach and talk more regularly to policymakers from all sides of the political spectrum.

Education

Education (Primary, Vocational, and Post)

We’re a point of great change in how “basic education” is delivered to the children of Washington state.

The Washington State Constitution says clearly that delivering a consistent, high quality “basic education” to our kids is the “paramount duty” of the state government. And I agree with that.

The critical question is: What’s the best way to deliver that “basic education”?

For years, as series of lawsuits focused on how taxes are collected to pay for “basic education”—which most education professionals define as Kindergarten to High School graduation. (I agree with that definition.) The main lawsuit that drove those funding questions was the so-called “McCleary” case. While some fine points on those issues remain, Washington’s courts have generally agreed that the tax questions raised by the “McCleary” case have been resolved by the legislature.

While all that tax work was going on, the mechanics of how tax money—once collected—is spent on K-12 schools has been largely ignored. That’s a problem, because many smaller School Districts are suffering under the broken system of school spending that we have.

Right now, the main mechanism that Washington’s state government uses to send operating funds to School Districts is an excessively complicated budget formula called the “prototypical school” model.

Frankly, this budget model was developed by education bureaucrats from the Puget Sound area—and it favors larger school districts over smaller ones. It uses a silly formula that budgets teachers and non-teacher staff (counselors, teacher assistants, nurses, bus drivers, custodians, etc.) based on the number of kids attending school in each district. In many cases, it only budgets a fraction of a position—half a counselor, a third of a nurse—to smaller schools.

Most education professionals agree that the “prototypical school” budget model is outdated and doesn’t work. The debate is whether the model and can be reformed and improved—or needs to be thrown out entirely and replaced with a new budget system. I’m open to the reform arguments but, at this point, I lean more to the throw-it-out-and-replace-it side of the debate.

I think we should come up with a new school district budget model that provides a basic level of staff functions for every school district, no matter how small, and then adds money on a simple basis per each student enrolled in each district. Also, that simple “per student” amount could “follow the student” as he or she moves around the state…or changes the sort of education she or he is pursuing.

Finally, there are two other points that we need to consider when we talk about education policy in Washington.

• The recent focus on tax policy and school district budgets has subtly begun a drift of control over education from local, elected school boards to unelected bureaucrats at the state’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. This is a bad drift. Local school boards need to keep as much control as possible over the curriculums and textbooks they choose, the administrators they hire or fire, the teacher and staff mixes they use. That local control is essential! And it’s one of the reasons I support Referendum 90, which would overturn Senate Bill 5395—the “Comprehensive Sexual Education” scheme that moves curriculum control away from local, elected school boards.
• The COVID outbreak of 2020 has sped up a pre-existing trend among many Washington families to choose to home-school their kids. The state’s education policy needs to recognize this trend. As I mention above, replacing the unfair “prototypical school” budget model with a new system that uses a simpler “per student” allocation of state education funds would make it easier for families to use that “per student” money in support of home-school programs, charter schools, education “pods” or mini-schools, conventional private schools…or whatever version of “basic education” the family chooses. I support expanding those options for Washington

Environment

Fish & Wildlife

I grew up fishing and hunting. And I still do both, when I can.

And, when I was young, fishing and hunting wasn’t just sporty recreation. We did it to eat. It was one of the great things about living in Washington. Families could live—and live pretty well—off of the land.

Has any state agency screwed up worse than WA Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW)? Its failure to manage its portfolio of fish and game resources is just sickening.

The Director of WDFW is not appointed directly by the Governor but by a Board of Commissioners selected by the Governor. So, the Governor’s control over the Department is indirect. Frankly, the Commission structure hasn’t worked very well. As Governor, I will support reforming that set-up.

In recent years, the legislature has considered several different proposals for restructuring the WDFW Commission. None has gotten much traction. Some of those proposals would eliminate the Commission and return authority back to the Governor directly; others would go the opposite direction and expand the Commission to include more voices. Frankly, either approach would be an improvement over what we have now.

As Governor, I will measure WDFW’s performance by a simple set of questions: Are there fish in the water? Are there deer and elk on the land? Are sport hunters content? Are commercial fishermen content?

If the answer to any of these four questions is “No.” Then WDFW isn’t doing its job.

One final thought: The trouble that WDFW has had managing our system of state-run fish hatcheries is inexcusable. It’s an unforced error. We need to increase hatchery production immediately—no excuses! We have the mechanisms to do this. And general agreement from fish scientists at both the federal and state levels that we can increase hatchery production without disturbing the natural balance among different species.

We simply have to do this.

Environment & Natural Resources

Here in Washington, the people value a clean environment and close, well-managed natural resources. I know this because of what thousands of people across all parts of the state have told me.

And I agree with them!

Two state agencies are primarily responsible for management of the environment and natural resources in Washington—the WA Department of Ecology (our version of what the Feds call their “Environmental Protection Agency”) and the WA Department of Natural Resources.

Both of these agencies have made so many mistakes and bad policy decisions over the past 20 years that it’s hard to keep track. But I’ll try to give you a quick recap of each agency.

First, the WA Department of Ecology.

Here in Washington, we don’t look to the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to guard against pollution. By longstanding tradition, the EPA delegates its authority to our state Department of Ecology. Ecology is headed up by a director, appointed by the Governor.

In its early years of existence, Ecology had scientists as directors. But, in recent years, its directors have been lawyers. This is a mistake. One that I’ll fix—immediately—when I’m Governor. No more lawyers heading up Ecology. The damage caused by the agency’s recent leadership is plain to see.

Ecology has become focused on expanding its “rulemaking” powers. (I discuss the constitutional problems with bureaucratic rulemaking in the Regulatory Reform section of this web site.) A growing portion of Ecology’s employee base is dedicated to rulemaking, which does nothing to protect the environment or curb pollution in this state. These employees are just bureaucrats pushing paper to push more paper to “require” the agency to push more paper.

Aside from expanding rulemaking powers generally, Ecology has over-extended its role in permitting various activities—construction, manufacturing operations, food processing—in this state. In its original form, Ecology was supposed to provide counsel and advice to local jurisdictions, usually at the county level, that made permitting decisions. Over the years, Ecology has morphed from a science-focused advisory role to a controlling, decision-making role. This is constitutionally-dubious and bad for the state’s economy.

Infrastructure

Transportation & Infrastructure

Anyone who’s driven near or through King County knows that automobile traffic congestion is a major issue in this state. Unfortunately, the current leadership at the WA State Department of Transportation (WSDOT)—political partisans, appointed by the current Governor—have stated plainly that relieving traffic congestion is NOT an agency priority. Instead, that leadership is chasing hare-brained schemes for European-style “mass transit” that do nothing but waste taxpayers’ dollars.

This will change!

State transportation policy—and WSDOT’s marching orders—need to focus clearly on two priorities:

• allowing Washington’s people to move quickly and comfortably from where they live to where the work, shop or run essential errands;
• allowing Washington’s businesses to move their workers, goods and services efficiently and cost-effectively around the state, around the nation or around the globe—as they choose.

That’s really it. We don’t need to clog WSDOT’s mission statement with gobbledygook about global politics and “social justice.” (Right now, WSDOT offers that stuff as its top priorities. See for yourself at the agency’s web site: wsdot.wa.gov.)

As I’ve mentioned before, the state’s Transportation Budget has seen some good, bipartisan reforms in recent years. This is a hopeful sign—for its particular needs and for Olympia budget-writing, in general.

Faced with a projected $450 million shortfall in its regular two-year budget during the 2020-2021 cycle, legislators on the Senate and House Transportation Committees were able to use “programmatic” budget adjustments to make up the shortfall. These adjustments were more tightly focused and targeted than crude “across-the-board” cuts. The legislative budget writers did the hard work for reviewing thousands of line items in the Transportation Budget, ranking them by type and importance, and making adjustments according to that ranking.

Doing that hard work, the Transportation Committee legislators were able to undo the damaging “freeze” that the current Governor had placed on ALL state Transportation infrastructure projects.

We need to move away from the current Governor’s destructive approach to negotiating budgets. As Governor, I will work cooperatively with the legislators on budgets and budget adjustments. One of the bad side effects of “freezes” and “across-the-board” cuts is that they make infrastructure projects MORE expensive when they’re eventually resumed.

By cooperating more constructively with the legislative branch, I believe I will be able to accomplish more infrastructure improvement, most cost-effectively for taxpayers, than the current Governor has done with his childish budget tantrums.

Safety

Homelessness, Drug Addiction & Crime

Homelessness, drug abuse and mental health

As I’ve said many times, Washington doesn’t have a homelessness problem. It has an addiction and mental health problem.

People who deny this plain truth are usually pushing self-interested agendas.

Government policy on homelessness should be to help troubled people resolve the core issues that cause their troubles. It should NOT be to enable people who are caught in downward spirals of addiction or other self-destructive behaviors. Enabling the afflicted isn’t compassionate—it’s callous and brutal. Washington’s current Governor has enabled such behaviors—and we see every day the bad results. People living on our streets in third world inhumane conditions.

We need to help our neighbors who are down-and-out. In fact, we have a moral obligation to our communities to do so. While government shouldn’t be the only method for providing this help, it does have a role to play. I see that role primarily as a support—or “force multiplier”—to private, charitable activities. I believe in Washington citizens. We some of the most generous, compassionate and socially mindful citizens in our country. Your state government should magnify that goodness.

There are great examples of this approach working in several parts of Washington. One is in Longview, where the organizations Community House and CORE Health work cooperatively to get people off the streets. Permanently. To be clear, Community House’s programs aren’t just a no-strings handout. They require people to commit to getting better, living better lives—and, once people make that commitment, Community House and CORE Health provide the space and basic services to help them. It’s not luxury…it’s not always pretty…but it works. Not only does it work, it produces much better results than so-called “no barrier” or “wet” homeless housing schemes do.

Covid

The year 2020 will always be remembered for the coronavirus outbreak and the resulting COVID-19 disease.

COVID isn’t a hoax. It’s a real viral outbreak. And, while it is a “relative” to other types of viral influenza—swine flu, bird flu, etc.—it’s more than just a bad cold. It can be fatal to certain groups of people; specifically, the elderly and people with certain underlying medical conditions like diabetes, asthma, COPD, etc.

The important policy question related to the COVID outbreak is: What’s the proper government response?

I believe that state government should be involved in encouraging and supporting public health. However, I believe that its proper role is to educate people as much as possible on the mechanics and risks posed by communicable diseases—and then trusting Washington citizens to make the best decisions for themselves, their families and their local communities. After all, no one cares more about your health than you.

I believe Washington’s current Governor has drastically overstepped his proper and Constitutional role during the COVID outbreak thus far. He has twisted the emergency powers that Washington State law gives him. Rather than focusing on educating the people, the state agencies under his control have withheld good data and information! And he’s focused on making legally-dubious proclamations to create the illusion that he’s “doing something” or “acting decisively.” This is outrageous and demonstrates the type do-nothing government Washington citizens are tired of seeing from their elected public servants.

If we’re all honest in our assessment of his performance, it’s clear that he’s acting divisively—not decisively.

As Governor, when faced with a health crisis, I will always put information and education first. I will tell Washington citizens EVERYTHING the state government and best experts know about the situation. And I will trust the citizens and business owners to use that information effectively and to make the best decisions for themselves.

The important thing for Washington voters to know is this: We need to make sure that we’re never again in a situation where a Governor is making unilateral “emergency” proclamations SIX MONTHS after an emergency has been declared. That isn’t good government.