The lack of respect which Jay Inslee is given has been well-chronicled of late – from failing to even get an endorsement from the Democrat Party in the most liberal legislative district in Seattle, to Democrats joining Republicans to overturn his record-setting 27 legislative vetoes, to a D+ grade from those who know Olympia best – it just has been a depressing time for our very light (in accomplishments) governor.
However, the most depressing news came last week with the release of his most recent fundraising report – because it turns out that donors are none too impressed with his 3+ years of ”governing”. Inslee’s fundraising was so bad that even the uber-liberal Seattle website PubliCola and far-left Seattle P-I blogger Joel Connelly wrote about his failures.
Phrases like “Does Jay Inslee have what it takes to be a one-term Governor? … (Republican Bill) Bryant has an opening to make a race of it against an incumbent with anemic approval ratings” (Connelly) and “Governor Jay Inslee’s fundraising numbers for this year’s gubernatorial campaign are lagging when compared to his previous totals” (PubliCola) point to dissatisfaction with the long-time liberal Congressman among what passes for the liberal intelligentsia in Seattle.
However, the story would be even worse if the mainstream media was actually doing a bit deeper research on Inslee’s money-grubbing to-date, because it is beyond unimpressive.
Just consider the data available from the Public Disclosure Commission reports which Inslee has filed since he started his re-election campaign back in January, 2013:
- Inslee’s recent 5-email, month-end begging spree was a dismal failure. His campaign told donors that not raising $35,000 by the end of March would be “devastating for our campaign”. Jay himself said that “falling short is not an option.” Yet, it appears that he may well have fallen short of even this meager goal, save for an accounting trick of listing contributions that had not yet reached his campaign (if you look at his finance reports, he made one deposit on March 31 that left him short of his $35k goal, and then the campaign filed a second report the same day to push his monthly donor total to $35,298).
- Inslee’s fundraising numbers are inflated by six-figure transfers from the State Democrat Party ($703,000) and his last campaign ($192,000) – meaning that without the nearly $900,000 that didn’t come from his fundraising, Inslee would have less than $1 million in the bank.
- Inslee’s reliance on big-dollar donors masks a weakness among the grassroots he needs to be excited about the race. He currently has 87 donors who have given the previous maximum (it was raised last month by $100) of $1,900 to both his primary and general election campaigns, and another 74 who have given the old primary max – a total of $471,200 his campaign (from the 1%ers that liberals love to demonize – meaning those donors are tapped out. Additionally, he has raised over a $342,000 from donors of over $1,000 for the general election – money that can’t be used to keep his campaign afloat in the primary.
- And finally, despite the lackluster fundraising, Inslee has been spending like it was taxpayer money, blowing through more than half his treasury already (over $2.2 million of $4.1 million raised).
It’s struggles like these that, according to the old liberal war-horse Connelly, have Democrats looking past Inslee and at an unopposed Attorney General (Bob Ferguson) and a failed former Seattle City Councilwoman seeking the Secretary of State post (Tina Podlodowski) “as leaders of Democrats ticket for statewide offices.”
Ouch.
Of course, maybe the dismal fundraising numbers will cause enough panic for Inslee to start showing up for work – at the campaign headquarters. Because, as Shift has reported, he certainly doesn’t spend much time actually governing.
