Attorney General Candidate Matt Larkin Talks D.C., Crime, and Homelessness in Seattle

We sat down for a chat with Matt Larkin, Republican candidate for Washington state Attorney General. We talked about his time in politics in Washington, D.C., and his plan for success if elected A.G. His website is here.

Note: This interview has been abridged in some places for clarity.

How did you get involved in politics in the first place? Was there a definite starting point sometime in the past?

Matt Larkin: You know, there wasn’t a defining moment… It started for me… I guess this sounds corny, but a sixth grade class trip to Olympia. That’s when I first started [laughs] sensing that… that feeling that you could actually make a difference. We met with legislators, we went to the capitol building, and I thought, “You know what? That’s really cool, you can actually impact society for good, from this kind of a job. And since then that seed was planted, and I’ve had a love and a passion for it ever since.

I then went to college, became a political science major, and then helped out on a congressional campaign, here in Washington, 1st Congressional District, as a field coordinator, against Jay Inslee, when he wanted another term in Congress.

So… then that just perpetuated, and I went to D.C. for college, did an internship there in the U.S. Senate for Rick Santorum, then from there I got an internship at the White House, from there I got a job at the White House, and it just kind of perpetuated itself.

Let’s talk about your time in Washington, D.C. What was that like?

Larkin: Really exciting… to just be in the center of all. Probably more so –I won’t waste your time talking about the Senate, because the White House was so much cooler— but the Senate was neat too, because I was with the Senate Republican leadership, and I got to meet people like Vice-President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld, and all these people. As an intern, it was just mind-blowing.

So then going to the White House, working closely with the President of the United States, in my mid-to-late twenties, was an honor, and it was super-cool to just be in the mix, being involved in major decisions. But it was certainly an intense job… there was no downtime, and they expected a lot out of us, and rightfully so, because we were writing speeches and crafting messaging for the President, the leader of the free world… So, I wouldn’t trade it for the universe, it was such a cool experience. ...The friendships that were forged in fire… staying up at your desk all night working late hours at the White House... have lasted through all these years. It was fun, it was a really exciting time.

You must have picked up a lot of know-how when you were in D.C. How do you intend to apply that know-how to serving Washington state?

Larkin: In 2008, we had the economic collapse… we were there in the White House during the economic collapse, so the crisis, so there’s a total meltdown around the world. And what it taught me is just how leadership matters and how people you put in office matter. Thankfully we had a seasoned commander-in-chief like George W. Bush to steer us through that. But we’re feeling a similar sense of crisis now, as our state and our city is just continually bombarded with an anti-police movement and with increasing violence in our cities, and lot of people feel very uneasy about things, including me, including my wife, and most of the people I talk to going around the state. So there’s a sense of unease, and we need real leadership now more than ever. And we don’t have it from our attorney general. He’s not leading, and in fact he’s been silent through this whole mess, and that’s not what we need. We need real leadership right now.

Your platform puts a lot of focus on maintenance of law and order, including supporting the police and flushing out drug traffickers. What specific policies do you have in mind for accomplishing these objectives?

Larking: Well, we need to be taking a tough stance on enforcing the law. Right now you have, in our major cities, lawlessness, de facto lawlessness, and it feels like Gotham City at times. I grew up in Seattle. It was a beautiful place to grow up, it was fun, it was safe… I don’t recognize it anymore. It is out of control. We have open drug use on almost every street corner in downtown. You can be caught with seven doses of heroin and not be arrested. And that’s the norm. People are dealing and shooting up in plain sight, and nobody is cracking down on it.

So it becomes a magnet. Once criminals and drug dealers and drug users know no one’s going to do anything about it, it exacerbates the problem, and draws more users and criminals to the area. It costs around thirty-five-thousands bucks a year for a heroin addict to support their addiction. So guess what? Crime starts surrounding drug use. People start shoplifting, people start breaking into cars, people start mugging people, and it just becomes a festering, growing problem.

So we need an attorney general who is going to, first of all, clean up the streets. We need to get these people who are openly using drugs off the streets, either through incarceration, or in some cases treatment. What I want to do is offer a carrot and a stick. I say, “Look, here’s the stick, you’re gonna go to jail for three years because we caught you dealing drugs in a city park. Or, we’re going to offer you inpatient treatment, one year treatment, it’s mandatory. And from there, we’re hoping to get you the help you need.”

And a lot of users don’t even realize or won’t admit that they need help. And hopefully we can force that hand and slowly start to clean up this homeless problem. Eighty-percent of the homeless are addicted to drugs or mentally ill. So we need to get them help. And that can come in the form of incarceration or treatment. But the attorney general right now isn’t even mentioning it, he’s not even talking about it as a problem, and in fact he won’t even take a stance on state-funded, legal heroin injection sites.

It’s a disaster. They’re doing it up in Vancouver, Canada, and it’s exacerbated the problem by six-hundred percent since they instituted it up there. But this attorney general refuses to take a stand on those issues. And that’s the problem. We don’t have a leader right now.

If you are elected, what do you intend to do if the legislature and governor’s office remain in the control of the Democrats? Is there anything they can do to obstruct your policy plan?

Larkin: Is there anything they can do? Yeah, they can not vote for a lot of this stuff that I’m proposing. But one of these skills I plan to bring is listening. I’m going to go door-to-door to each one of those legislators, and I’m going to sit down with them. I’m not going to send my lobbyist, which this attorney general does. I’m going to personally go sit down with each of those legislators, and the governor. We’re gonna push, we’re gonna build relationships with them, we’re gonna find common ground, and we’re going to start talking. Hopefully I’ll be more effective at lobbying than this attorney general is, just by building on a lot of those relationships I hope to gain.

Because the attorney general has a big seat at the table, as a lobbyist. Usually, the A.G. brings a list of pet causes to each legislative session. And this current one, almost every one of his pet causes is threatening the second amendment. His whole purpose in life is to take away guns. I will not share those pet causes. I have a whole different set of things I want to lobby for, including what we just talked about. It starts with building relationships. I’m hoping to get to work with a Republican governor, I’m hoping we take back the house, but I’m also a realist, and that may not happen. So we’ll see, we’ll stay hopeful and optimistic, and keep praying for that to happen. Nothing would give me greater joy than to work with a Republican governor. That would make a huge difference, because he would have veto power, and be able to influence the legislative process.

Find out more about Matt Larkin at MattLarkinForAG.com.

Like what you see here? Become a dues-paying member of the 37th District Republicans today, or subscribe for email updates!

What do you think about all this? Leave questions in the comments section!

You can also donate here!

Like us on Facebook here!