Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, with the support of his fellow Democrat lawmakers, wants to drive gas prices even higher by filing a “creative” lawsuit against oil companies.  A very similar lawsuit by a coalition of states was recently dismissed by the U.S. Supreme Court, but this doesn’t stop AG Ferguson from filing his own lawsuit (he does have to find tasks for all those taxpayer-funded attorneys in his office who used to spend their time filing partisan lawsuits against the Trump Administration).  AG Ferguson’s legal efforts are supported by such Democrat lawmakers as Representative David Hackney (Tukwila) who made news at the start of 2022 by co-sponsoring a bill which would actually reduce the penalty for those who are convicted in drive-by shootings.  At least Representative Hackney’s timing is consistent. Just as he wanted to reduce penalties on violent criminals as violent crime rates are rising, he now supports increasing the cost of gas just as fuel prices are skyrocketing. (Click to read full Shift Article)

National Republican leaders are certainly hoping that local Democrats are successful in their bid to allow Washington State’s liberal activists to have greater influence in determining the party’s presidential nominee in 2024.  The state Dems are making a push to move Washington State’s primary earlier in the calendar (possibly even before the Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary). Thus the local radical activists who participate in Democrat Party activities in our state would have a far greater impact in their party’s presidential nomination process.  This would increase the chance of the Democrat presidential nominee supporting the radical liberal policies which are often out-of-step even in liberal Washington State.  National Republicans understand that if our state’s radical activists are given a stronger voice in selecting the Democrats’ presidential nominee, there is a great chance the rest of the country will reject them and vote for the Republican. (Axios)

National analysts are speculating that since U.S. Senator Patty Murray has gone negative against her GOP opponent Tiffany Smiley so early – with her first TV ad – it suggests Democrats in Washington State are very nervous about the 2022 elections, and Murray’s own record.  Sabato’s Crystal Ball from the non-partisan University of Virginia Center for Politics inquired, “Is this (the early negative ads) a sign that Democrats are seeing worse than-expected internal numbers in the Pacific Northwest?” Since the 71 year old senator has spent her 30-year career in Washington, D.C. as an undistinguished party-line vote on every issue, these potential poor poll numbers would be a clear rejection by Washington State voters of the Democrats’ failed policies at the local, state, and national levels. (Sabato’s Crystal Ball)

One week from today (on June 22^nd) the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council will release its latest report on the state’s finances and it is expected that once again the state’s revenue forecast will exceed previous projections. The question Olympia observers are wondering is whether Governor Inslee and the majority Democrats in the Washington Legislature will finally join Republican lawmakers to provide tax relief to Washington’s low- and moderate income workers as the gusher of tax money continues to flow in.  States across the country, even those controlled by Democrats like California and New York, have provided tax relief to their residents, many of whom are struggling due to the impact of liberal economic and energy policies which have caused the highest rate of inflation in more than 40 years. Thus far Washington’s Democrat lawmakers have rejected Republican proposals to help lower and middle income workers by reducing the state’s gas tax, sales tax, property tax, B&O tax, and even a tax on diapers. Instead the Democrat lawmakers have chosen to take billions of dollars in surplus revenue to selfishly increase the size of state government even further, even though the cost of state government has already doubled in just nine years under Governor Inslee. (Washington Policy Center)

As predicted, Washington State gun shops are reporting record sales of firearm magazines of more than 10 rounds before the state’s ban goes into effect on July 1^st.  One gun shop owner noted that while the ban on larger magazines for rifles and handguns will impact law-abiding citizens, “The criminals aren’t going to care. They’re still going to do what they’re still going to do and the only people that it’s going to affect are people that weren’t a problem to start with.” (Seattle Times)

The Metro-King County Council voted to move the election of county officials to years ending in even numbers, because not enough of their liberal base voters can be bothered to vote in odd-numbered years.  Fearful that their failed liberal policies could cause Democrats to lose their jobs even in very progressive King County, the politicians on the county council voted 7-2 to give themselves more of a buffer by moving their elections to even-numbered years. Historically moderate and conservative voters turn in ballots in more elections, while liberal voters tend to be lazier voters who only participate in Presidential election years and other even-numbered years when U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives, and state legislators are elected. The measure passed the council and will now go before the voters this November. (Seattle Times)

After Governor Inslee issued a draft of a report which seeks to ignore scientific findings to achieve his dream of removing the four lower Snake River dams and destroying the clean energy and economic benefits they provide, he then warns that climate change will result in more blackouts in the state due to lack of energy.  On Monday, the Daily Briefing published the tweet (posted by the Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers) which pointed out this obvious conflict in policy decisions and political rhetoric.

Last week Governor Inslee and U.S. Senator Patty Murray released a draft of their partisan “report’ that made the extremely ambiguous claim that it would cost between $10 billion to $27 billion to replace the benefits of the dams. (Note: how serious should we take cost estimates that have a $17 billion range, and the higher estimate is 270% greater than the lower estimate?)  Earlier this week the governor’s campaign sent out a fundraising email discussing our state’s “fragile electrical grid.” The governor’s campaign failed to mention the state’s power grid endured previous high-power demands during spikes in temperature because of the reliable clean energy delivered by the dams Inslee wants to tear down. (CenterSquare, Todd Myers Twitter, and Lower Snake River Dams Benefit Replacement Draft Report)

We wonder how Democrat legislators feel about Governor Jay Inslee’s campaign continuing to extract contributions from liberal donors while they are fighting for their political lives defending the governor’s many controversial policies.  This should be especially bothersome to Democrat lawmakers on the ballot this year, since there is very little chance the governor will run for another term. (Governor Inslee running for re-election is about as popular among Democrat activists as President Joe Biden running in 2024.)  Democrat incumbent legislators are scrambling for the financial resources to run their campaigns while defending Governor Inslee’s abuse of emergency powers (now on Day 837), his energy policies which will result in even higher gas prices by the November elections, his refusal to provide any type of tax relief to struggling low-and moderate income workers, his passage of an unconstitutional state income tax on capital gains, and the multiple failures of the governor’s Department of Corrections, Employment Security Department, Department of Social and Health Services, Department of Children, Youth, and Families, and Department of Licensing. But, other than that, why not write Jay a check for a non-existent campaign. (Governor Inslee Campaign fundraising emails)

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