Democrat officials and party activists said that it is “bizarre and embarrassing” the lengths which Washington State Democrat Party Chair Tina Podlodowski has taken to discredit the non-partisan candidate for Secretary of State.  Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson is challenging appointed Secretary of State Steve Hobbs in the general election to serve the remaining two years of former Secretary of State Kim Wyman’s term.  After Republican Secretary Wyman was chosen to oversee election security at the national level, Governor Inslee appointed then-State Senator Hobbs to the position. That’s was mostly because the governor wanted a more extreme liberal politician to serve in that senate seat and eliminate Hobbs from sometimes blocking his extreme green legislation.

According to Axios, several Democrats have claimed that Chair Podlodowski is overreacting and going extremely negative against Anderson in her attempt to make the Secretary of State’s office part of the Democrat machine so she can dictate changes to our election system to benefit liberal candidates. Remember that meddling with elections is something of a passion for Podlodowski, who lost to Republican Secretary Wyman by almost 10%  in 2016, before she became the State Democrat Chair. Then she led the party to going all in to support her handpicked choice Representative Gael Tarleton in the 2020 election, who lost to Wyman by nearly 8%.  It is no secret that Chair Podlodowski craves to have the phone number of the Secretary of State on her speed dial so she can make sure future elections provide her liberal candidates with more advantages.

Also, it is interesting that so many Democrats have expressed their displeasure over Chair Podlodowski’s actions against Independent candidate Anderson, yet none of them expressed similar disappointment when the leader of the State Democrats strongly supported the candidacy of pro-violence and anti-police abolitionist Nicole Thomas Kennedy for Seattle City Attorney.  (Axios, Washington Secretary of State election returns, and Shift)

Once again the media blindly praises a liberal politician for their climate actions without bothering to ask if what they are doing is actually an efficient way to reduce carbon.  On Wednesday, Vice President Kamala Harris was clogging up Seattle area traffic doing campaign fundraisers for the very nervous Patty Murray for Senate campaign and making public announcements at invitation-only events.  At a closed-to-the-public event at Lumen Field, Vice President Harris told the gathered media that the federal government is providing $1 billion in grants to 400 school districts to purchase approximately 2,500 electric buses. The media then parroted the Democrats’ press releases which stated this would reduce carbon emissions, protects children’s health, and save money.

Quick math tells us that this is $400,000 per bus while gas-powered models currently sell for a little more than $150,000.  Given that buses have a 10-year life span, and averaging 12,000 miles per year, this means these school buses will save school districts approximately $10,000 a year in gas (in today’s high prices). This means that over the life of the buses, the district will save around $100,000 in fuel costs.

Each electric bus will reduce carbon emissions by less than 156 metric tons over its lifetime.  Since electric buses are $250,000 more expensive than fuel-powered buses, and the buses save $100,000 on fuel costs during their lifetime, this means taxpayers are paying $150,000 to reduce carbon emissions by around 156 metric tons per bus.   Yet, according to Todd Myers at the Washington Policy Center, the state could reduce the same amount of carbon emissions by spending $1,560 on carbon emissions projects like methane capture.  Thus, with this electric bus grant program, taxpayers are paying 100 times the amount to reduce the same amount of carbon emissions by investing in other projects that are available today.  This is a dramatic failure to meet the stated claim of “saving money.” It would be interesting to find out how much money these electric bus companies have given to liberal politicians so that the government purchases their inefficient buses. (KING5 News and Washington Policy Center)

Republican Senator Mark Schoesler (R – Ritzville) stated that Governor Inslee, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, and the legislature need to do more to stop retail theft, especially those committed by organized crime rings.  Retail theft is at an all-time high (the Washington Retail Association said it reached $2.7 billion in 2021) and the senator states this not only impacts store owners, but it impacts consumers because retailers must charge more for their products to make up for stolen merchandise.  Senator Schoesler laid the blame for this with liberal officials because, “the state isn’t providing enough help for retailers and local and state law enforcement agencies don’t have enough officers to effectively combat retail theft.” (iFIBER One)

As part of the Democrats’ goal to make Washington State a more comfortable place to be a criminal, the legislature passed a bill (as part of their 2021 anti-police package) which returned voting rights to convicted felons who were no longer behind bars but had not completed their court-imposed sentences (usually due to not performing community service or paying financial restitution to their victims).  The Democrats’ bill (HB 1078) will allow approximately 13,000 Washington State felons to vote for the first time in this year’s elections.  Democrats hope that their liberal soft-on-crime policies will entice these felons to vote for their candidates.  It is interesting that the media story on this issue does not include the perspective of victims who are upset that felons who have not paid their legal financial restitution or served their community service are being given back their rights as if they no longer have a debt to society for their criminal actions.  (KING5 News and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

The differences between the legislative agenda of Republican candidates and Democrat candidates was clearly demonstrated in a debate between State Senate candidates in the 47^th Legislative District (South King County).  While Republican candidate Bill Boyce strongly favored helping lower- and middle-income workers by temporarily suspending the state’s 49.4 cents per gallon gas tax, Democrat Claudia Kauffman is against any type of tax relief for she believes it is more important for the state to collect and spend more of our money.  Kauffman stated she favored the Democrats’ 2021 anti-police package, while Boyce said it went too far and is responsible for the state’s surging crime rate.  Boyce was also critical of the Democrats’ legislation which made it legal to possess such dangerous drugs as fentanyl and methamphetamine, while Kauffman said she supported this bill.  Boyce said one of his first acts will be to repeal the state’s poorly developed and already bankrupt Long-Term Care payroll tax, while Kauffman said she supported the new tax.  With the out-of-touch views Kauffman expressed, is it any wonder she (like many other Democrat candidates this year) resisted participating in a debate with her Republican opponent? (Kent Reporter)

It is interesting to read the Seattle Times interview with Anthony-Paul Diaz, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s selection to lead the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, for his statements on homeless encampments in neighborhood parks failed to meet the pledges Harrell made during last year’s mayoral campaign. Candidate Harrell asserted that parks need to be cleared of encampments, yet his pick to oversee such a policy (Diaz) does not repeat that promise when asked about the homeless problem in Seattle parks during the interview. Instead, the former general counsel for the Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation used very vague statements about a “collaborative approach” and the need “to be cognizant that the impacts of people experiencing homelessness can weave into the park system.”  It is this liberal hands-off approach to parks and encampments which has made Los Angeles one of the few places in the country to have a homeless problem as bad as Seattle suffers.  (Seattle Times)

A jam-packed room burst into applause when the Lewis County Commissioners voted 3-0 to prohibit unauthorized camping on county land and to remove and clean-up encampments which may be created. The measure requires authorities provide 72 hours of notice before encampment removals and that adequate shelter space be available. It is interesting to note that, like in many locations around the state, the largest current homeless encampment in Lewis County is near I-5 on property owned by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). It is easy to imagine that Lewis County officials are closely watching what Spokane officials are doing to clean up the large encampment that the Inslee Administration has allowed to fester on WSDOT property in their community. (The Chronicle and  KXLY TV News)

A strange phenomenon is occurring with wolves in Washington State – they are being killed by cougars.  The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) report that at least four wolves with tracking collars have been killed by cougars since 2013, as the wolves are encroaching into the cougars’ habitat.  There might be more instances of cougars killing wolves, but the WDFW does not investigate the deaths of uncollared wolves. (Elkhorn Media Group)

The City of Spokane has quickly replaced the Guardian Foundation with the Salvation Army to run its two homeless shelters.  It was reported a couple of weeks ago that a Guardian’s staff member embezzled up to $1 million in taxpayer funds.  The Guardian Foundation claims the amount is actually closer to $100,000.  Guardians had been previously approved by the Spokane City Council to operate the Trent Avenue and Cannon Street shelters and was given approximately $8.5 million to administer the two facilities. (Spokesman-Review)

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