House Democrat Leader Pat Sullivan (Covington) is the latest liberal legislator to suddenly announce he does not want to face the voters for re-election this fall. Like fellow South King County Democrat Representative Jesse Johnson (Federal Way), Representative Sullivan’s announcement is curious due to his campaign’s raising large amounts of contributions just before the December 11^th fundraising freeze began. Public Disclosure Reports reveal that in the final two weeks before the “fundraising freeze”, which begins 30 days before the start of a session, Sullivan collected more than $20,000 from his special interest friends. Clearly the nine-term representative was planning to run again next November when he started the session, or he would not have been working hard on fundraising beforehand.

This is yet another indication that even the most strident liberal Democrat lawmakers are FINALLY becoming aware of the public’s displeasure over their expensive and failed policies in Olympia and their  partisan methods of running things.  It is no surprise voters are upset with Democrat legislators who passed a “police reform” package which led to skyrocketing crime rates, an unconstitutional state income tax on capital gains (which included fake “emergency” language prohibiting voters from repealing the tax), a disastrous Long-Term Care payroll tax which will tax Washington workers for an entitlement program which they are ineligible to ever receive benefits from, expensive and ineffective climate policies which will send already rapidly rising fuel prices even higher, and state budgets which doubled the cost of state government in just nine years.

And, while passing these unpopular measure, the same liberal lawmakers refused to reign in Governor Inslee’s unprecedented 2+ years of undemocratic abuse of emergency powers or pass any tax relief measures (despite $15 billion in unexpected revenues) to help low- and middle- income households deal with severe inflation caused by liberal policies.  This is

the record of liberal “achievements” which all Democrat lawmakers must run on, so is it any wonder fewer of them are willing to face the voters this November, especially in swing suburban districts. (Jeff Pohjola Twitter, Representative Jesse Johnson Twitter, and Washington State Public Disclosure Commission)

At the last minute, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell “postponed” a Seattle Police Department plan to enforce laws surrounding bus stops on downtown Seattle’s crime infested 3^rd Avenue.  The police had planned to begin today to enforce the city’s criminal code which prohibits “disorderly conduct” on buses and bus stops in an attempt to impede on-going illegal activity taking place around 3^rd Avenue bus stops.  City laws prohibit drinking alcohol, gambling, playing loud music, harassing others, and any “other conduct that is inconsistent with the intended use and purpose of the transit facility, transit station or transit vehicle.”

Officers had already begun implementation by issuing warnings and informing violators that full enforcement would soon begin.  Yet at the last minute, the mayor decide to hold-off on actually citing illegal activity.  A spokesperson for the mayor provided the vague excuse that the sudden delay was “to allow more time to reset norms and to evaluate what enforcement strategy is most appropriate and effective.”

Evidently the “norms” which Mayor Harrell approves of do not include the laws currently on the books in the city. But, by waiting until the last minute to prohibit police officers from enforcing city laws, Mayor Harrell has wasted the SPD’s limited resources and has raised doubts about whether he has any commitment whatsoever to reducing Seattle’s serious crime problem as he promised he was on the campaign trail last year. (Seattle Times)

Car thefts in Bellingham have quadrupled (from 34 in the first two months of 2019, to 136 during the same time period in 2022) since the city’s all-Democrat legislative delegation passed the party’s disastrous “police reform” laws.  And Bellingham car owners can expect the number of stolen automobiles to continue to grow since Democrats during the 2022 legislative session refused to “fix” the restrictions their 2021 “police reform” previously placed on law enforcement’s ability to pursuit suspected criminals.  In the first 72 days of 2022, there have been more car thefts in Bellingham than there were for all of 2019.  In suburban and rural Whatcom County communities outside of Bellingham, the county sheriff’s office reports that car thefts have doubled during the past six months as compared to the same time period a year before. (Bellingham Herald)

Typical of how the Seattle City Council develops policies, its members are currently working with labor unions to impose a tax on marijuana sales because there is a perceived “inequality” in the state’s $1.4 billion cannabis industry, but they have no clue as to how to spend the tax to solve the equality problem.  This is typical of city councilmembers process of “Tax now, ask questions later.”  The city said it expects to raise $5 million by placing even more tax on the sale of cannabis products. The labor unions are currently demanding that they receive the money so they can run programs on how to teach people of color how to grow marijuana.

A spokesperson for the trade group Craft Cannabis Coalition, said taxes already account for nearly half of the revenue collected from pot sales and if the city wants to impose a training program, they can simply reallocate the funds they already received.  It is worth noting that one of the primary arguments for legalized pot sales is that it would reduce the amount of illegal activity by unauthorized weed growers and sellers (who still have a large share of the market since pot shops cannot sell to those under 21). By continuing to add more taxes to the price of marijuana, more people will seek lower prices through illegal means. (KUOW)

Tragically Pierce County Sheriff Deputy Dominique “Dom” Calata died on Wednesday following an exchange of gunfire with a criminal suspect which police were serving a felony warrant on. Deputy Calata leaves behind a wife and a four-year-old child.  He served in the U.S. Army for eight years before returning home to serve as a police officer “trying to keep the community safe and the streets safe.” The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department has set up a memorial fund for Deputy Calata. (News Tribune, KBTC Interview, and Tacoma – Pierce County Crime Stoppers)

Liberal urban legislators imposing reckless policies and regulations is cited as one of the major reasons why many farmers and ranchers in California, Oregon, and Washington are moving to more farmer friendly locations.  In Washington State, this has included unrealistic COVID protocols, climate policies which dramatically increase the cost of fuel needed to deliver crops to market, the passage of a job killing government-mandated wage structure, and Governor Inslee’s failed attempt to impose a massive land grab of private farming property through dramatically increasing the “buffer zones” around rivers and streams. The governor displayed his lack of respect for the state’s agriculture community by not including any farmer or rancher (or even his own Secretary of Agriculture) in the group which secretly developed his legislation (but featured his wealthy urban environmentalist campaign contributors).

One former Washington farmer who moved to Nevada said, “It was the best thing I ever did. I don’t regret moving out of Washington.” The former apple and cherry farmer said the negative attitude from state officials was a primary factor in his decision. “It didn’t matter what you did, you were always wrong, you were a bad person,” he said. “I couldn’t take it anymore.” (Capitol Press)

The Federal Bureau of Investigations has chosen to explore allegations that employees of the Spokane School District have failed to comply with state laws which mandate that educators report criminal activities.  Last Friday Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl sent a letter to the district stating a “pattern of assaults and threats occurring to students and staff that are not being reported to the police.”  The FBI has sent a letter to all district principals asking them to contact its agents if they have been pressured by the school district to not report illegal actions. The school district responded to these allegations by asking why they haven’t been contacted about these unspecified illegal actions.  More is sure to come from all of this in the coming days. (KREM TV)

Governor Inslee’s campaign continues to blast out fundraising emails as the end of the 2022 legislative session means the state fundraising freeze has ended. This leads to a very legitimate question – If the state fundraising freeze is put in place during the legislative session (and 30 days prior to when it begins) to remove any appearance of conflict of interest as legislators deliberate on state policies, then shouldn’t the same freeze be extended on the governor for the 20 days after the session ends when he decides whether or not to sign a bill?  If it is believed to be wrong for legislators to receive contributions while they are acting on bills, then why aren’t the same restrictions in place during the allotted time when the governor is deciding which bills he will sign or veto? (Inslee Campaign email, Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, and Washington Governor website)

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