Try as he might, Jay Inslee was unable to rally Democrats with his constant cries of “the Trump is coming, the Trump is coming” in advance of yesterday’s primary, as reported by the Seattle Times. Instead, the “green” governor was rejected by a majority of the 20% of the state’s voters whose ballots were tallied yesterday, netting just 48.6% in his re-election race.
All the primary numbers are available at the Secretary of State’s website, but the failure of Inslee to rack up a big win over his Republican rival Bill Bryant, despite having outspent him by $2 million dollars heading into the voting, was surprising. Instead of showing strength around the state, Inslee received a majority of the vote in just three counties – King, Jefferson and San Juan – and those three counties accounted for all of the 83,000 votes which he was leading Bryant by on Tuesday night. Inslee failed to even reach 40% of the vote in 21 of the state’s 39 counties.
Inslee held a desperate press conference Monday to try and generate some enthusiasm for his campaign – and to call Bryant names – but it seems that one could have easily replaced Bryant’s name with Inslee’s in the main quotes the incumbent was throwing around – and insert an issue that actually matters in our state – and it would have made more sense.
Just consider the following (italicized words added by the author):
“I am calling on my opponent, Bill Bryant Jay Inslee, to stand up today, show a bit of spine, stop hiding under a rock and disavow Donald Trump the Washington Democrat platform’s demand for a state income tax.”
And,
“Bill BryantJay Inslee has put his party re-election ahead of his countryWashington state.”
But of course, Inslee doesn’t want to talk about Washington State issues after his four years of mismanagement. So, expect to hear a lot more about Donald Trump, and virtually nothing about Inslee’s support for the state income tax he proposed last year, as the campaign moves on to the general election.
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