Brian O'Gorman
No Party PreferenceQ1 America has a growing artificial intelligence (AI) industry, supporting cutting edge innovation and reshaping businesses, but raising concerns about education, ownership, and security. Application of AI technology has increased the demand placed on data centers, controversial for their resource use (such as water and land) and raising utility costs. What are your policy positions in regards to data centers and AI? What sources of evidence informed these policies?
AI will also raise costs of food due to loss of arable farmland and drive wildlife away. These rising power, water, and food costs will coincide with a significant loss in jobs. The AI professionals themselves estimate a 10 to 100 percent chance of AI causing our destruction with most estimates falling between 10 and 70 percent (Sources: Geoffrey Hinton, Daniel Kokotajlo, Dario Amodei, Elon Musk, Roman Yampolski, etc.) I believe in evidence based practices and effective training protocols. Two separate AI’s have already attempted to kill a mock executive and SWAT its building. The risk does not justify the reward. Nuclear weapons aren’t the great filter. AI is. The “AI Race” is a manufactured justification for throwing tax dollars into a contest to see who destroys the world first. Cyber-public health is at an all time low because of domestic individuals that are “vibe coding” with AI to cause harm. This is unacceptable.
KEYWORDS: Bad. Bad. Bad.
Q2 What are your top funding priorities for environmental projects and research in our state? If you do not have specific priorities, how would you approach setting those priorities to ensure effective environmental stewardship?
Earth is our only home. In every doomsday movie, no one listens to the scientists and that ends up biting everyone in the ass. These movies are art imitating life. We need to change our policies to follow the advice of peer reviewed data.
KEYWORDS: Peer reviewed data
Q3 What are your opinions on the current state of science literacy, and how could K-12 education standards be adapted to improve the public understanding of and relationship building in science?
I was educated by public schools that, in the original district charter, declared that their purpose was to teach children to be factory workers. I have taken college courses but the military interfered with completion. To truly fix science in K-12 schools, we need to stop teaching science as a collection of static facts to be memorized for a test. We need to start teaching science as a method to observe patterns in reality. Math is the core of science and it is also the bottleneck. Reading is the decoding of science to evaluate evidence critically. I would champion adding Arts as painting, music, and drama because engineering requires innovation. Our goal is to maximize student success via multi-modal learning styles.
KEYWORDS: Multi-Modal, STEAM, Fundamentals
Q4 The Bear Gulch Fire, one of 2000 recorded fires in 2025, was the biggest on the Olympic Peninsula in 70 years, burning over 20,000 hectares and causing $42 million in damages. What are your policies around fire risk management for the state?
Just as in any biome, the relationship between flora and fauna is interdependent. To strengthen this relationship, we need to focus on practical ways that we can actually affect a positive outcome. This includes: Ground our actions in forest and environmental science. Foster science and public safety literacy within our communities. Secure stable year round funding for our response teams. Recognize that our communities and our ecosystems thrive or die together.
KEYWORDS: Forestry Environmental Science Climate Science Funding
Q5 Puget Sound and the Washington coast are experiencing rapid changes, such as warming waters, ocean acidification, and ecosystem shifts, that have major impacts on Washington’s wildlife and fisheries. What policies and funding, if any, would you prioritize for fisheries management, scientific monitoring, and to help communities adapt to these shifts?
This requires a multi-disciplinary task force made up of climate scientists, marine biologists, commercial fishermen, and tribal leaders to name a few. Monitoring will be integral to any path forward. Because we aren’t just talking about the economy, but also about local food sources required for survival , transparency will be necessary to negate the political pushback.
KEYWORDS: Multi-disciplinary, Monitoring, Transparency