Now that Jay Inslee is not running for re-election against some nasty Republican, it’s time for some media types toactually take a look at his record and the less-than-stellar activities that have been going on under his watch, which are many as Shift has covered for the last decade. The latest discovery comes courtesy of Crosscut, which dives into how “the state Department of Commerce has funneled close to a half-billion dollars in federal aid directly to more than 25,000 businesses across Washington, with fewer strings and less transparency than other pandemic stimulus efforts.”

This new scandal is brewing on top of the financial review done in 2021, when “the State Auditor’s office cited Commerce as part of a broad review of CARES Act funds, finding it failed to comply with federal requirements regarding risk assessments.” Judge for yourself whether you think much has been learned from that failure, considering this condescending statement from the office about the latest whoops: “We can always improve processes and programs.”

Gov. Inslee’s appointee who managed this mess at the Commerce Department is counting on this record to be a springboard to higher office, so she has since moved on – but you can read further in this briefing about how Lisa Brown wants to bring this type of mismanagement to the city of Spokane.

And, if you have the stomach for it, you can read more about how the “Crosscut analysis of the data found Commerce awarded millions to large corporate chains. King County businesses received an outsized proportion of funding compared to its share of the state population” and on, and on, here… Shift, Crosscut.

People on the West side of the state might be surprised to learn that the Spokane Mayor’s race is the most expensive in the state this year, but it is just continuing a trend that started pre-COVID. The Spokesman-Review goes heavy into the numbers – and that history – with its review of how, with “an unprecedented amount of money flooding into Spokane elections this year, one group stands alone: the Spokane Good Government Alliance.”

Mayor Nadine Woodward is the main beneficiary of the group’s spending, as was the case when she first ran (and won) in 2019. Then, as now, the Alliance is filling what it sees as “a dearth of real reporting about the radical and dangerous agendas held by many candidates for office.” In this case, former Commerce Director and State Senator Lisa Brown is a focus, as are her allies running for other city offices.

Read on for how a labor PAC guided by the Seattle left-wing advocacy group FUSE is again rallying its troops against Spokane’s business community here… Spokesman-Review.

Here’s just another case that you won’t read about on Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s website or his multiple social media accounts (or much in the Puget Sound media).  But you can read and weep this Olympian review of how a “King County Superior Court Judge has ordered the Washington State Attorney General’s Office to pay Value Village more than $4.2 million in attorney’s fees in a case that has dragged on for more than six years.”

The judge noted that because AG Ferguson dragged the case (seemingly to avoid bad publicity) on for so long, the “State’s conduct during this case contributed to increased fees and costs.” You can see more how this “fee award against the AG’s office is the largest in this context in Washington state history” here… The Olympian.

Brian Heywood, founder of Let’s Go Washington and a beekeeper, used last week’s Newsmaker Interview to detail six key initiatives the organization aims to bring to the 2024 Washington State Legislature. Each initiative requires 324,516 valid signatures from registered voters by this December 29, though Let’s Go Washington hopes to secure more than 400,000 signatures for each one to ensure a lawful count. The initiatives cover diverse areas, including easing police pursuit restrictions, repealing the carbon tax to reduce gas prices, allowing residents to opt-out of the Long-Term Care payroll tax, repealing the Capital Gains income tax, prohibiting any income taxes by the state or local governments, and establishing parents as primary stakeholders in a child’s upbringing through a parents’ bill of rights. Read more.

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