Shift’s Newsmaker Interview is with Republican House candidate Karen Lesetmoe, who is challenging two-term Democrat Dave Paul, who won re-election in 2020 by just 738 votes. The 10^th Legislative District (Island County, NW Snohomish County, and SW Skagit County) race is pivotal if Republicans are to take control of the Washington State House of Representatives by picking up nine seats this November. Lesetmoe is the mother of six and a real estate agent who is running for office to “fight for the American Dream” which she has experienced herself.  She came to the United States from the Philippines when she was six years old with just her family and a suitcase.  If elected she pledges to support law enforcement because “communities cannot thrive without safety.” In her Shift interview Lesetmoe also discusses what the state should have done with the $15 billion it had in surplus revenue this year, long term health care, and how Governor Inslee’s abuse of emergency powers has hurt the most vulnerable in our state. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

The failure of House Speaker Laurie Jinkins to allow a vote declaring January as “Americans of Chinese descent history month” is apparently because a couple of her fellow Democrat legislators wanting to punish the Chinese American group behind the bill.  Remember the State Senate passed SB 5264 by a unanimous 48-0 vote at the start of the 2022 legislative session, to create this educational opportunity.  The House State Government and Tribal Relations Committee then passed the bill (also unanimously) and it was sent to the full House for final passage.

According to internal communications between two Democrat legislators and Speaker Jinkins (obtained through Public Records Request), this is when Democrat legislators decided it was more important to punish a group for something it did in 2019 than to show support to our state’s large Chinese American community.

Representative My-Linh Thai (D – Bellevue) and Representative Cindy Ryu (D – Shoreline) sent messages to Speaker Jinkins asking her to place a hold on the bill.  Representative Ryu was especially worried that passing the bill would result in an “emboldened” WA Asians for Equality.  This group was formed in 2019 to fight back against the passage of Democrat legislation which would return racial quotas to the state’s hiring practices.  Through the referendum process (Referendum 88), WA Asians for Equality led the citizen effort to (once again) have Washington State voters reject racial quotas.

Representatives Thai and Ryu were successful in encouraging Speaker Jinkins to kill the bill in the 2022 session. Evidently to Democrat legislators, no matter how worthy and broadly supported a proposal is, they believe it is justified to kill the bill if all of its supporters are not 100% liberal in their beliefs. (EIN Presswire, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, and Washington Secretary of State Election Results)

Sexual assault survivor advocates say they are being “gaslit” by the disingenuous comments made by liberal city officials over the Seattle Police Department not having the resources to investigate new sexual assault cases involving adults.  Due to the Seattle City Council caving into the demands of liberal rioters to “defund the police” and the subsequent mass exodus of more than 400 well-trained and diverse police officers, the SPD’s sexual assault and child abuse unit has been reduced from 12 detectives down to just four, and thery have been told to focus attention on cases involving children.

For the past few months sexual assault victims’ advocates have been expressing concerns to city officials over the lack of resources dedicated to their cases.  Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has allegedly said to them that reductions were solely based on staffing problems.  Yet it appears that by Mayor Harrell making it a priority to clamp down on “higher visibility” crimes (such as homeless encampments and mass illegal activity on downtown’s 3^rd Avenue) that his PR efforts are also a major contributing factor in the reduction of detectives working in the sexual assault unit. Riddhi Mukhopadhyay, executive director of the Sexual Violence Law Center said, “Now we are being gaslit. [The SPD’s] response has always been kind of slow and not as timely compared to other jurisdictions. But it’s gotten worse.”

It was interesting to see City Councilmember Andrew Lewis (who famously broke campaign promises to increase police funding by supporting the “defund the police” proposals and who proudly had his picture taken with other councilmembers during the riots) back out of an interview on the city’s severe reduction of support of sexual assault victims.  He is the Vice Chair of the council’s Public Safety and Human Resources committee. (Seattle Times, KUOW, and MyNorthwest)

City of Seattle anti-employer policies are likely a contributing factor for Pemco placing its Seattle headquarters up for sale and not making a commitment to stay in the city where it was founded in 1949. The insurance company released a statement saying its Dexter Avenue headquarters has more space than  it needs in a post-pandemic workplace environment. The company refused to answer questions whether the move is related to Seattle’s anti-business environment and continuing crime problem and only stated a long-term commitment to the Pacific Northwest, but conspicuously not Seattle. (Seattle Times)

Police say they understand the frustration many residents are experiencing over rising crime rates, but warn against vigilante justice or going after stolen property.  There have been multiple media reports recently of exasperated citizens who have taken legal matters into their own hands.  A Pierce County Sheriff’s spokesperson said, “It’s just not worth it. You’re possibly going to hurt yourself or someone else. Or you’re going to face jail time or civil penalty from a lawsuit over stolen property.” The reporter sought a comment from Governor Inslee’s office over how citizens should react to the crime wave caused by the 2021 anti-police package passed by Democrat legislators which he signed.  Instead of defending his party’s partisan actions the governor chose to blame police department vacancy rates on “competitive employment between jurisdictions” which will take a long time resolve.  (Q13 Fox News)

Eastmont School District in East Wenatchee announced it will increase the police presence in its schools for the remainder of the school year due to recent shootings at schools across the country.  East Wenatchee Police Chief Rick Johnson said his department has already partnered with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office to allocate part of the officers’ “time to campuses during the day, as well as arrival and release times.” Chief Johnson also said he hopes to obtain cooperation from the Washington State Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security and extend police presence to other area school districts as well. (Wenatchee World)

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