Shift’s Newsmaker Interview is with second-term Representative Peter Abbarno (R – Centralia), who was promoted to House Republican Assistant Floor Leader prior to the start of the 2023 legislative session.  Representative Abbarno is an attorney and former Centralia City Councilmember. He is married to public school teacher and is the father of two children.

Representative Abbarno shares his thoughts on a wide variety of issues that are being discussed by current legislators. He is the co-sponsor of a much-needed bill to reform the emergency powers of the governor. He highlights Republican proposals to help lower- and middle- class families with permanent tax breaks. He opposes a Democrat voting measure that prioritizes criminals’ voting rights and another bill that eliminates the public’s voice on tax measures by eliminating Advisory Votes (which was originally enacted by citizen initiative in 2009). Representative Abbarno also provides his views on the state’s housing crisis, school choice legislation, and how some Democrats refuse to repeal their disastrous police pursuit restrictions which have made our state a more comfortable place to be a criminal. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

Stolen Valor Representative Clyde Shavers (D – Kirkland) is holding two town hall meetings tomorrow (Saturday) after spending the past three months avoiding the public. He has been very quiet since his  father publicly confirmed that his son had repeatedly lied about his military service, his work experience, his family’s history, and even where he lived to get elected.

Shift broke the story a week before the election and since then, Representative Shavers has only released statements and has refused media interviews.

By only giving the public two days’ notice of the two Saturday town hall meetings (that he has likely had on his own schedule for a while), it is obvious that Democrat party bosses are working hard to limit who attends the meetings. Remember, the Democrat party and liberal interest groups poured thousands of dollars into Representative Shavers’ faltering campaign after Shavers’ father confirmed that his son lied to voters.

There have been rumors for a couple of weeks that the town meetings were going to take place after liberal special interest groups were organized to build favorable crowds.  Thus it is important that others (who weren’t hand-picked by the special interest groups) to attend and ask the representative about his many lies and why he told them? Or maybe ask how his lack of credibility severely impairs his ability to serve his constituents?

The first of Saturday’s two scheduled hour-long town hall meetings starts at 1:00 PM, at Langley’s Bayview Community Hall (5642 Bayview Rd). The second event will begin at 5:00 PM at the Civic Garden Club in La Conner (622 2nd Street).  (Democrat Caucus media release, Shift, Shavers’ campaign Public Disclosure Commission report, and Everett Herald)

Senator Chris Gildon (R – Puyallup) refuted in a (Tacoma) News Tribune op-ed the feeble arguments of Senator Manka Dhingra (D – Redmond) for why state lawmakers should not repeal the Democrats’ disastrous 2021 police pursuit restrictions.  Senator Dhingra, as the appointed-by-Democrats Chair of the Senate Law & Justice Committee, has made it known she will (again) do everything possible to not allow her fellow Senators to vote on bi-partisan legislation to repeal the law (HB 1363) which will certainly pass the House.  Senator Gildon writes that Senator Dhingra has cited discredited data (which even fellow Democrat legislators have condemned as faulty) to support her misguided and fictitious belief that allowing criminals to go free is somehow safer for law-abiding residents.

Senator Gildan states that if Senator Dhingra continues to hold up the repeal legislation, which a clear majority of both the House and Senate members support, then it is up to the Democrat Senators to either remove her from her chairmanship or join with Republicans on the senate floor to bring the bill up for a vote. Each of the other 28 members of the Democrats’ Senate Caucus will have to decide if it is more important to reduce the number of crime victims in the state or cave to the party bosses who support Senator Dhingra’s irresponsible actions. (News Tribune, Q13 Fox News, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, The Center Square, and Democrat Senate Caucus Members)

Representative Cyndy Jacobsen’s bi-partisan bill to reduce the cost and time of obtaining local building permits for moderately priced housing units passed unanimously through the House of Representatives Housing Committee.  In Representative Jacobsen’s Newsmaker Interview last week she discussed the positive impacts of HB 1401.  She stated the bill would “encourage localities to provide a streamlined permitting process for affordable housing. 25% to 30% of the cost of new housing is in regulatory and permitting costs. Let’s work on reducing that.”  This legislation, impacting housing units smaller than 1,801 square feet, was specifically crafted to create more lower- and middle- income housing.

Liberal housing and building regulations have resulted in Washington State ranking last of all states in housing availability.  This has caused home prices and rental rates to skyrocket.  While Governor jay Inslee has proposed borrowing $4 billion to solve some of the problems his policies have created, Republican lawmakers have sought a more commonsense approach by reducing the costs and restrictions government regulations have imposed on housing construction. (House Republican Caucus media release, Shift Newsmaker Interview, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, Seattle King County Realtors, and Seattle Times)

The Washington Policy Center has released an informative policy brief which uses facts to refute many of the Democrats (and teachers unions) claims on education spending.  While liberals claim education spending has declined, the facts show it has actually increased.  The state now spends $18,000 per student.  This is double what was previously spent per student and it is equivalent to the tuition cost at most Washington State private schools.  Annual teachers’ pay and benefits currently average $126,000, which is up 37%.  As the number of school employees (and union dues) have increased, the number of students has decreased.  This is a worthwhile read for those seeking facts about education spending. (Washington Policy Center)

Governor Inslee’s Department of Social and Health Services’ poor performance in providing court-ordered mental treatment for suspected criminals has caused the past president of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs to proclaim, “we have reached rock bottom.”  Outgoing Grays Harbor County Sheriff Rick Scott said that local jails are now filled with inmates seeking treatment before they can stand trial.  He said that many of the local jails, including the one in his county, has 20% to 30% of its inmates awaiting treatment the state is required by law to provide to those who may be mentally incompetent to stand trial.  Local superior court judges have fined the state millions of dollars for failing to provide treatment.  Grays Harbor courts alone have imposed over $1 million in fines.  (KING5 News)

While Seattle continues to drop in the rankings of many national lists, it can now claim to be the second “highest” urban area in the country preferring marijuana over tobacco.  In an extensive national survey conducted by the Nielson research company, Seattle ranks second only to Portland, Oregon for residents who have recently used cannabis compared to those who have smoked cigarettes or used vapes.  865,000 (19.5% of those over 18) Seattle area residents said they have used cannabis (including edibles) in the past 30 days, compared to 560,000 (12.6%) residents who have smoked tobacco products. This is a 6.9% gap.  In the Portland area, 20.8% used cannabis and 12.7% smoked tobacco, for an 8.1% gap. The San Francisco Bay area is third with a 6.2% gap.

Seattle used to routinely win the “most livable city” in America awards. Yet residents are now reduced to bragging, “We are almost high enough to beat Portland.” (Seattle Times)

A 116-year-old Seattle business has decided to close its doors due to the failures of liberal homelessness policies.  The fifth-generation owner of Emmanuel’s Rug and Upholstery Cleaners in the Sodo neighborhood said her business will close due to health and safety issues caused by the multiple homeless encampments nearby.  Thea Sands said that trucks are stolen from her locked lot and every Monday she comes to work finding graffiti painted on the building and used drug needles scattered on the ground.  There has even been burning mattresses left on her property.  Sands echoes what many Seattle businesses have said recently, “We’ve just kind of had it with what’s happening in Seattle.” (KOMO News)

Due to urban liberal legislators imposing wage regulations on Washington State farmers, many of the workers they claimed to be helping will soon be completely out of a job as more farmers are looking at robotics to harvest crops. Washington State University researchers are working with many Eastern Washington farmers to develop intelligent robotic systems.  Harvesting is the most expensive activity on a farm due to the wages paid to workers.  This has become even more expensive due to the overtime regulations imposed on farmers by Seattle area legislative Democrats.

Some farmers are not only looking for robotics to help with harvesting costs, but for other farming activities as well. These year-round activities include precision-fertilizing, pruning, and green fruit thinning. (Capital Press)

Liberals attempt to erode constitutional rights of those who are critical of their many failed policies, while media “watchdogs” remain asleep in the corner. There were two stories this week which highlighted the efforts of liberals/Democrats to use their one-party control of the state to discriminate against those who don’t toe the line of their liberal doctrines.

University of Washington Atmospheric Science Professor Cliff Mass detailed several instances where liberal administrators, professors, and students have attempted to squelch the free speech of those who hold moderate or conservative viewpoints on campus.  Brandi Kruse used internal communications to reveal that local and state liberal politicians are developing strategies to deny access to information to journalists who actually pose tough questions about their many failed policies.

Mainstream reporters and editors, who claim to hold “those in power accountable”, remain relatively silent over these affronts to freedom of the press and freedom of speech.  It is difficult to imagine the local press would be this quiet if moderates or conservatives ran the UW and were squelching the free speech rights of liberals, and if it were Republican politicians who refused to provide equal access to liberal journalists. (Click to read full Shift Article)

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