Shift has been proud to put the spotlight on the (often unethical) investments that California hedge fund billionaire Tom Steyer has made in Democrat politics in this state. Even the mainstream media started picking up the Steyer story during the legislative session.
Then in May, the Seattle Times reported that Steyer had met with Jay Inslee in the Governor’s mansion, with “most of the time spent on ‘pretty technical and wonky’ aspects of climate policy. They also discussed ‘the political challenges inherent in trying to address carbon pollution’.”
However, Inslee’s office said that “there was no specific political request or plan discussed” when asked specifically about whether the discussion included plans to attack Senators who oppose Inslee’s tax-raising agenda.
Now it turns out, according to the New York Times, Inslee was lying about that.
In a Monday story, reporter Coral Davenport writes that “Mr. Steyer’s strategy is to spend heavily this fall to help defeat sitting lawmakers who oppose Mr. Inslee’s agenda and pave the way for the governor to move his policies through next year”, and that “Mr. Inslee discussed the strategy over lunch at the governor’s mansion in May with Mr. Steyer.
In fact, Inslee makes no apologies for misleading the public about his partnership with Steyer: “Having a change in the State Senate would be a quantum shift in our ability to move forward,”, with Inslee defining “forward” as raising gas prices by perhaps more than $1 per gallon, and perhaps instituting a carbon tax.
Steyer has formed a new SuperPAC in the state, a move necessary because he told the Public Disclosure Commission last year that the political committee he used to pump more than a half million dollars into attack ads was going out of business – in hopes of avoiding a fine for not following Washington rules on campaign contributions.
This year it appears that Steyer has chosen, with Inslee’s blessing, the Washington Conservation Voters as the group that will help him launder his money. And the WCV is thrilled to be the front group, according to its national leader: “We’re working to give Jay the Legislature that he needs,” said Gene Karpinski, president of the national League of Conservation Voters. “The state senators are the obstacles.”
Keep in mind the liberals define “obstacles” as any legislator who opposes Inslee’s tax-raising ideas, and the extreme environmental agenda that has made him and Steyer fast friends.
The upshot of the Inslee-Steyer partnership: perhaps $1 million or more in attack ads against legislators in “half a dozen key seats that could tip the majority of the State Senate in favor of Mr. Inslee’s agenda”. If Steyer follows his usual dark-money approach, “his previous pattern indicates it will be hundreds of thousands of dollars for each candidate.”
In addition to watching the attacks unfold, it will be interesting to see if the media will be able to get Inslee to tell the truth about his role in all the attacks.
