Editing Rob McKenna (section)

===2004 election===
McKenna based his 2004 campaign for the office of attorney general around three areas of protection he promised to bring to Washingtonians: protection of the safety of families by fighting crimes such as [[identity theft]], internet fraud, and child pornography, and supporting local police, sheriffs, and prosecutors; protection of rights by controlling regulation and supporting the public's right to know what the government is doing; and protection of pocketbooks by counseling state agencies to avoid costly trial and litigation, bringing reform in the matter of reducing what some see as unfair burdens placed on doctors, hospitals, and other professionals.<ref name="bio3"/>

McKenna developed broad-based alliances to win the election, attracting the support of prosecutors, police chiefs and sheriffs, along with farm and business leaders one at a time and then leveraging those endorsements into broader support. He also built nontraditional alliances with tribal leaders, public safety unions, firefighters and other moderates in both parties.<ref name="AP Bio 2005"/> He defeated political novice Mike Vaska, a private attorney from [[Issaquah, Washington|Issaquah]], in the Republican primary for state attorney general, with approximately 70 percent of the vote. He defeated former Insurance Commissioner and Democratic Senate candidate [[Deborah Senn]] in the November General election and was one of just a few Republicans to win statewide office in 2004.<ref name="AP Bio 2005"/>