Word is out that Governor Inslee is planning a mini-media tour of the state tomorrow to commemorate the end to his 16-month “Reign of Errors.”  As we reported yesterday in the Daily Briefing (and we will undoubtedly have more tomorrow), the Inslee administration has been the source of many serious errors of judgment during the pandemic – not just the normal errors which might happen in an unprecedented pandemic.  Instead, most of these mistakes are the clear result of poor leadership on the part of Governor Inslee.

A true leader rallies people together around a common purpose and is able to influence others to follow through on the soundness of the mission.  However, instead of bringing the state together, Governor Inslee has chosen to make this crisis a divisive, partisan political event.

Starting with his early caustic tweets, through elimination of bi-partisan advisory committees (replaced by three committees consisting exclusively with his political supporters), and then forming an alliance with other states, but only if they were run by fellow Democrat governors (while ignoring our neighbor Idaho and our economic partner Alaska because they had Republican governors), Jay Inslee chose to be divisive, and not a unifying leader.

These political decisions likely cost lives, which the media has failed to report on, as much of the state understandably became disenchanted with the governor’s partisan actions and failed to follow his advice when state health officials began to encourage people to wear masks last summer.  Even state health officials understood the governor had lost credibility and they were forced to run ads featuring retired General James Mattis (a conservative stalwart!) which encouraged Washington residents to wear masks.

There is no way to measure the loss of the public’s faith in the governor’s abilities and decision-making process after he chose to say he was completely unaware of the takeover by liberal activists when they threatened the public safety of Washington residents by shutting down a police precinct and assuming control of six blocks in the center of the state’s largest city.

And today, many of those refusing to become vaccinated are doing so because they do not trust the advice of Governor Inslee and other government officials.   Besides the overt partisanship of his actions, the governor also chose to ignore the questions, concerns, and advice of not only the legislature, but also of local elected officials.  If Governor Inslee were a true leader, he would have involved these individuals in decisions, so they could have been effective communicators in encouraging people to follow the state’s advice of wearing masks and obtaining the vaccine.

Instead, Governor Inslee chose to be divisive and exclusionary, ensuring that his actions over the past 16 months will never be taught to young leaders, except to point out what NOT to do during a crisis. (KHQ TV, Shift 6/28 Daily Briefing, MyNorthwest, Governor Inslee media release, Rebecca Perry Tweet, and Washington State Department of Health TV ad)

While Governor Inslee is planning to celebrate keeping his promise to reopen the state on June 30^th, he is not actually intending to give up his dictatorial power.  That’s right, Inslee plans to keep his emergency authority in place – some 16 months after the emergency began, and long after it needed his unmonitored attention.  Jason Mercier of the Washington Policy Center writes that our state is one of the few remaining states to allow the governor unchecked powers during an emergency.  Mercier also points to several unfortunate and unnecessary incidents which have taken place since Governor Inslee began his unchecked powers nearly 500 days ago.

Among Inslee’s unforced errors are the state being the 48^th to reopen, not lifting capacity restrictions in air-conditioned restaurants during the recent heat wave (but strangely allowing unlimited capacity at government-run facilities), rolling back (moderate) Pierce County to Phase 2 but allowing (liberal) King County to stay in Phase 3 despite almost identical infection rates, and allowing Far-Left protests and riots to take place (which became “super spreader” events), while denying religious gatherings, 12-step meetings  and other outdoor events. (Washington Policy Center)

KTTH radio host Jason Rantz accuses controversial Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal of lying when he claims Critical Race Theory is not being taught in Washington State schools.  Rantz claims, “He’s playing a dishonest semantics game he thinks he can win. Thankfully, we have plenty of documentation proving critical race theory is taught in Washington schools. It’s even being forced on staff during training. Just not in the way Reykdal aims to redefine the debate.”

Reykdal is not unfamiliar with being condemned for his very partisan actions.  On the evening of the November 2019 elections, Reykdal addressed legislative Democrats after it became apparent I-976 (reducing car tab fees) was going to pass and told them to “Step Up” and deny transportation funding to any county whose voters supported placing limits on annual vehicle fees. Once he received criticism for his retaliatory suggestion, Reykdal tried to play coy by deleting the tweet.  Fortunately we captured it before he erased his hyper-partisan views. (MyNorthwest and Reykdal Twitter)

Seattle City Light posted a memo Monday stating that the city’s reliance on hydropower is the primary reason why the utility will be able to handle the surge in energy demands during the current heat wave.  City Light stated that the 100+ degree days cause a 30% increase in energy use, due to the increased use of air conditioning and refrigeration.  The memo states, “The fact that we are a hydropower region, not overly dependent on intermittent resources like solar and wind, is very helpful in this situation.”  Thus, while radical Seattle environmentalists continue to push to remove the Snake River dams (and needlessly destroy the clean power they provide), they are able to stay cool, calm and collected knowing that their power will remain on due to the reliability of hydroelectric energy – and not on a dangerous reliance on the accurately defined “intermittent resources” that they want to force on everybody else. (Seattle City Light Powerlines Blog)

Q13’s Brandi Kruse rightfully condemned the hateful actions of the organizers of Seattle gay pride events which encouraged division instead of the inclusion they falsely claimed to seek.  These are the latest examples of liberal organizations and politicians seeking to establish their own form of “privilege” in order to exclude some people from participating.  First, a Capitol Hill Pride event sought to ban police officers from attending, which many gay law enforcement officers obviously found to be very offensive. The second was the “Take B(l)ack Pride” event which was free except for white people, who were asked for an entrance fees of $10 – $.  This was labeled a “reparations fee” by event organizers.  Incredibly, the City of Seattle’s Human Rights Commission and City Council President (and mayoral candidate) Lorena Gonzalez supported the divisive actions of the groups, and even demanded an apology from those who dared to criticize these discriminatory actions. Kruse stated that these are the latest examples of “a movement that is all about acceptance and inclusion that is being hijacked by people who only want to spread rejection and exclusion.” (Q13’s The Divide)

Cowlitz County Coroner Tim Davidson admits to receiving travel reimbursement payments for costs already paid for by outside organizations.  Davidson acknowledges that he illegally received $12,600 in taxpayer funds for conference-related expenses he did not pay for.  This is just one of many items brought up by coroner staff members over the “toxic” leadership of Davidson and his deputy coroner, who has been accused of stealing drugs from death scenes and for driving while intoxicated.  The coroner is an elected position in Cowlitz County and can only be removed from office through a recall election. (KNKX Radio)

Scientist Jim Conca warns that Washington’s rapid decarbonization of its energy supply will likely result in future power outages because of the failure of state officials to provide a realistic alternative energy source.  In a guest op-ed in the Tri-City Herald, Conca writes that legislation has been passed which, “requires all utilities eliminate coal by 2025 and be carbon neutral by 2030. Many experts warned that losing baseload sources like coal, or even hydro, and replacing them with wind, would increase the probability of brownouts and blackouts in the next ten years, like we’re seeing play out in California and Texas.” Conca believes that state’s future dependence on wind and solar energy is risky for the necessary infrastructure has yet to be built and is already proven to be expensive and difficult to build. (Tri-City Herald)

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