The governor may be back for more punishment, according to AP reporter Curt Woodward.

Gov. Chris Gregoire, newly elected to a second four-year term, is considering a rare third run at the governor’s mansion.

Gregoire, a Democrat, filed paperwork with the state Public Disclosure Commission on Feb. 10 indicating that she’s a candidate for governor in 2012.

Gregoire hasn’t fully decided whether to seek a third term, but she also isn’t giving up that option, administration spokesman Pearse Edwards told The Associated Press.

“She’s interested in running, but hasn’t made up her mind,” Edwards said Friday. “It keeps those options open.”

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The last Washington governor to run for three terms was Republican Dan Evans. Evans won all three races, serving overall from 1965-1977.

Gregoire, 61, was elected to her second term last fall over Republican Dino Rossi with about 53 percent of the vote.

Her first campaign for governor, also against Rossi in 2004, was historically close: Gregoire won by just 133 votes, after two recounts and a GOP legal challenge.

Democratic political strategist Cathy Allen, who has advised Gregoire, said the governor’s supporters certainly hope she might shoot for a third term in the state’s top office.

“I think you will continue to see, as a matter of course, the governor continuing to look strong and look as though she is running in 2012,” Allen said.

Keeping the option of a third term open also allows Gregoire to manage speculation about her political future while she works through the hobbled economy and massive state budget deficit, now at about $8 billion.

“Why would any governor in her right mind not hang around until this nasty recession is over with, so we can start building again as opposed to cutting everything?” Allen said.

If Gregoire does move ahead with a 2012 run, state law wouldn’t allow her to raise any money until after the 2009 legislative session is over this spring.
The 2012 election may seem a long ways off, but ambitious politicians would begin jockeying for position the instant a sitting governor declared that she isn’t seeking another term — if not earlier.

Signaling an intent to exit the job too early also can diminish a sitting governor’s political clout, making him or her a lame duck that people may take for granted.

Gregoire’s predecessor, Democratic Gov. Gary Locke, announced that he wouldn’t seek a third term in mid-2003. Gregoire, who was then the state’s attorney general, announced her candidacy for governor minutes later.