With the stroke of his pen, Gov. Bob Ferguson killed Results Washington — once hailed as the nation’s model for government accountability and transparency. Executive Order 25-06 ended a program that dared to measure progress on the things that matter most to Washingtonians.
In signing that order, Gov. Ferguson instead created Your Washington, retooling Results Washington into a “primary customer experience hub for Washington state agencies.”
In doing so, Gov. Ferguson has handed citizens of this country an unexpected gift, that of clarity around a question that is essential to our nation’s survival yet rarely enters public conversation: Who is responsible for holding our government accountable?
One thing is now certain. It is not our elected officials. It is not government itself.
Abraham Lincoln, who led during our most divided time, put it plainly: “I have understood well the duty of self-preservation rests solely with the American people.” Results Washington was a serious attempt to answer Lincoln’s call — a vision of a state that dared to define success and measure it in plain view.
It set ambitious goals: world-class education, a strong economy, clean energy and environment, safe communities and accountable government. Progress was tracked through dozens of real measures, including graduation rates, housing affordability, wages, poverty, suicide, traffic deaths, homelessness, drug overdoses and firearm deaths.
For a time, citizens could see exactly how their government was performing on these key issues. I know, because I was there when Gov. Jay Inslee launched Results Washington. His first chief of staff, Mary Alice Heuschel, asked me to help design it. It was bold. It was courageous. And for a time, it worked.
But sustaining accountability is harder than launching it. Reviews between the governor and agencies became scripted. Inslee never fully embraced fact-driven problem-solving. By 2019, as Inslee prepared his short-lived presidential run, staff quietly scrubbed environmental measures from the website because reality didn’t support someone running as the “environmental president.” By 2021, even updating the measures became optional. Everyone inside Olympia knew: the work no longer mattered.
The program’s official death this year was just the final act.
We have no shortage of evidence that Americans are divided and frustrated. We are tired of promises. A July Wall Street Journal-NORC poll found that the share of people who believe they have a good chance of improving their standard of living has fallen to just 25%, a record low.
Our Constitution leaves no doubt about where accountability rests: “We the people.” One of the most radical ideas of our founding is that the highest office in the land is not mayor, governor, senator, or even president. The highest office is citizen.
What Washington attempted with the results program was rare. But its fate is not. I have studied and advised states on accountability for more than 15 years. Ten years ago, I wrote a book that documented these efforts nationwide. The pattern is clear: Governors launch bold initiatives, but their successors almost always abandon them.
Gov. Christine Gregoire’s accountability system was discarded by Inslee, who created Results Washington. Ferguson has now buried what little momentum was created. The common thread? Self-accountability does not last.
The most discouraging part is not that politicians lose interest. It is the silence when the measures come down. Few notice. Fewer care.
We have been pulled into a political system designed to divide us left vs. right, red vs. blue. But accountability is not partisan. It is foundational. And it belongs to us.
If we want accountable government, it’s on us. Citizens must demand transparency, track progress and reward leaders who deliver results, not clever slogans. Today, too many of us vote on ideology. Tomorrow, we must vote on outcomes.
The question isn’t whether politicians are ready for accountability. The question is, are we?
