Gary Locke

Gary Faye Locke (born January 21, 1950) is an American politician and diplomat serving as the interim president of Bellevue College, the largest of the institutions that make up the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system. Locke served as the 21st governor of Washington (1997–2005), the 5th King County Executive (1994–1997), the 10th United States ambassador to China (2011–2014), and the United States Secretary of Commerce (2009–2011).

Locke is the first Chinese American governor as well as the first Asian American governor in the continental United States. He was also the first Chinese American to serve as U.S. ambassador to China.

Early life

Gary Locke was born on January 21, 1950, in Seattle, Washington, and spent his early years living in the Yesler Terrace public housing project. A third-generation Chinese American with paternal ancestry from Jilong village, Taishan, Guangdong, China, Locke is the second of five children of James Locke, who served as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Fifth Armored Division during World War II. James Locke's wife, Julie, is from Hong Kong, which at that time was a British Crown Colony. His paternal grandfather left China in the 1890s and moved to the United States, where he worked as a houseboy in Olympia, Washington, in exchange for English lessons. Locke did not learn to speak English until he was five years old and entered kindergarten.

Locke graduated with honors from Seattle's Franklin High School in 1968. He achieved Eagle Scout rank and received the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America. Through a combination of part-time jobs, financial aid, and scholarships, Locke attended Yale University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1972. He received his Juris Doctor from Boston University School of Law in 1975.

Career

Washington representative

In 1982, Locke was elected from a South Seattle district to the Washington House of Representatives, where he served as the chair of the Appropriations Committee. Eleven years later, in 1993, Locke was elected King County's Executive, defeating incumbent liberal Republican Tim Hill.

Governor of Washington

In 1996, Locke won the Democratic primary and general election for governor of Washington, becoming the first Chinese American governor in United States history. His political committee was fined $2,500 by regulators in 1997 after admitting to state campaign finance law violations.

Locke faced criticism from fellow Democrats for embracing the Republican Party's "no-new-taxes" approach to Washington's budget woes during and after the 2001 economic turmoil. Among his spending-reduction proposals were laying off thousands of state employees; reducing health coverage; freezing most state employees' pay; and cutting funding for nursing homes and programs for the developmentally disabled. In his final budget, Locke suspended two voter-passed school initiatives and cut state education funding. Supported by the state's political left, former Washington Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge announced his plans to challenge Locke in the 2000 Democratic primary, but Talmadge ended his campaign early for health reasons; Locke won reelection in 2000.

On the national stage, Democrats saw Locke as a possible vice-presidential choice. In 1997, he was a guest at the State of the Union address.

Locke was chosen to give his party's response to George W. Bush's 2003 State of the Union Address. In a surprise move, Locke announced in July 2003 that he would not seek a third term, saying, "Despite my deep love of our state, I want to devote more time to my family." Susan Paynter, a columnist at the ''Seattle Post-Intelligencer'', suggested that racist slurs, insults, and threats that Locke and his family received, especially after his rebuttal to Bush's State of the Union address, may have played a role in Locke's decision to leave office after two terms. The governor's office received hundreds of threatening letters and emails; others threatened to kill his children. His official portrait, painted by Michele Rushworth, was unveiled in the state capitol by Governor Christine Gregoire on January 4, 2006.

After leaving office, Locke joined the Seattle office of international law firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, in their China and governmental-relations practice groups. During the leadup to the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, Locke was Washington co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's campaign.

Secretary of Commerce

On December 4, 2008, the Associated Press reported that Locke was a potential candidate for Secretary of the Interior in then-President-elect Barack Obama's cabinet. Eventually, then-Colorado Senator Ken Salazar was nominated for that position instead.

On February 25, 2009, Locke was announced as Obama's choice for Secretary of Commerce, and his nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate by unanimous consent on March 24. Locke was sworn in March 26 by District Judge Richard A. Jones, and by Obama on May 1. Locke was the first Chinese American Secretary of Commerce, and one of three Asian Americans in Obama's cabinet, joining Secretary of Energy Steven Chu

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