There’s an election this November for an important executive position that involves governmental affairs. This election is generating a lot of buzz. The news media and voters have been anticipating this election since 2004 and it’s critical — I’m not talking about John McCain versus future President Barack Obama; I’m talking about the re-election of Gov. Gregoire over Republican challenger Dino Rossi.

As university students, we need to elect a gubernatorial candidate who best supports funding higher education and will be willing to sign new programs into law.

Gregoire is spot on.

Rossi is complaining about how big our government has grown over the past few years. What he doesn’t say is that this growth has been primarily due to education; smaller class sizes and more money for financial aid and scholarships.

Gregoire wants to increase funding for trade schools. Students who graduate or drop out of high school should have the opportunity to earn a family wage.

In the governor’s “State of the State” address, she said that she has put in a request for funding to increase security on college campuses. This is good, considering the woman who was severely beaten near campus a few weeks ago.

Rossi is trying to bring down Gregoire, but it’s not going very well.

Senator Janéa Holmquist, (R- Moses Lake), gave the rebuttal to Gregoire’s address. She mentioned no critique of the governor’s higher education policy, which leads me again to conclude that Gregoire is right on.

In Rossi’s response to Gregoire’s speech, he mentioned nothing for or against higher education. On Rossi’s campaign Web site, he makes no mention of college or any other post-high school education policy. That means he doesn’t care or is satisfied with the incumbent’s policy.

I’m bothered by something Rossi said in his “real State of the State” address: “There’s nothing wrong with our people. But I believe there is plenty wrong with our government.”

The last time I checked, Washington state’s form of government is a democracy, where the people are the government.

Every citizen who’s a registered voter is a legislator. We can’t amend our state constitution without voter approval, but we can write laws via citizen’s initiatives and we can strike down laws via the referendum process. We are the government, and according to Rossi, there is plenty wrong with us.

In the state House, we have 63 Democrats and 35 Republicans, and in the state Senate, we have 32 Democrats and 17 Republicans. In Washington, we like Democrats and their ideas. Washington state has always been a “big government” state because that’s the way we like it. We emphasize a strong, cohesive society. Back in the 1930s, an adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt once said, “We have 47 states and one Soviet of Washington.”

Dino Rossi is a “reduce the size of government” kind of guy, but that’s not our history and not what we value, especially on the subject of education.

Last fall, conservative magazine Newsmax, graded the level of corruption for our nation’s gubernatorial offices. Only one state received an “A” — Washington. We have the least corrupt governor’s office in the United States. It’s hard to smear Gregoire when her office is doing a fine job, and the Rossi campaign is struggling to make legitimate critiques.

I’ve given Rossi a chance. I’ve read his book, talked to Republicans who will vote for him and watched him give speeches.

But I’ve concluded that Gregoire is smarter, more capable and more qualified to govern our state for the next four years; most importantly, she’ll have the best interests of Huskies in mind.

[Reach columnist Ryan Morden at opinion@thedaily.washington.edu.]