Even a liberal journalist is expressing shock over Seattle City Council President (and current candidate for mayor) Lorena Gonzalez’ self-serving actions which allow her out-of-state union buddies to circumvent campaign contribution laws, while also denying many Seattle businesses the opportunity to participate in campaign activities.  Longtime Seattle journalist Joni Balter came out of semi-retirement to detail Councilmember Gonzalez’ shady actions, in which she banned any business with more than 1% foreign investment (which is nearly all publicly traded business in today’s global economy) from participating in Seattle elections. Thus local companies like Amazon, Starbucks, and Microsoft, which employ tens of thousands of Seattle residents and pay millions in local taxes, are prohibited from assisting pro-business candidates. Meanwhile out-of-state government employee unions, which happen to love Gonzalez’ platform of increasing the size and power of city government, are free to spend unlimited funds on independent expenditures to assist pro-big government candidates. (Click to read full Shift article)

Washington State Democrat Chair Tina Podlodowski was forced to correct a false statement regarding the work performed by the Republican members of the Washington State Redistricting Commission.  The four members of the commission (two Republican and two Democrat) released their initial maps for new legislative district boundaries on Tuesday.  The Republicans’ versions increased the number of competitive (i.e. swing) districts while the Democrats’ versions focused on protecting current incumbent legislators, especially Democrats in non-Seattle swing districts who will likely face difficulties in 2022.

In order to draw attention away from the Democrats’ obvious strategy to protect their vulnerable members, Chair Podlodowski issued a factually incorrect statement with the frivolous accusation that the GOP commissioners were not following the law.  Podlodowski’s statement claimed, “Republican commissioners apparently decided not to follow the direction of the law and the mission of the Redistricting Commission. The GOP has drawn effectively non-contiguous maps and have prioritized their own political and electoral objectives above the mission of the Commission as actually defined in the RCW. There’s nothing in the RCW about valuing ‘competitiveness.’”

The statement provided a link to the RCW, which apparently no one at the Democrat State Party had actually read, for it states, “The commission shall exercise its powers to provide fair and effective representation and to encourage electoral competition.” Ooops! The Democrats were forced to provide the phony excuse that the statement that was blasted out to state media members was actually a draft and shouldn’t have been released.  Even if the excuse were true (which is doubtful), why would anyone draft up a statement based on RCW laws before actually reading the RCW law they were linking to?

Besides the factual error, it is very hypocritical of the Democrats to suddenly care about enforcing laws. After Democrat officials (including Podlodowski) refused to condemn the violent riots conducted by liberal activists in 2020, which included the illegal takeover of parts of Seattle (which Democrat Governor Jay Inslee infamously said he knew nothing about) and attempted mass murder of police officers. Liberals then compounded their attack on the legal system by caving into the rioters’ demands to defund the police in Seattle and pass many police “reforms” at the state level. These actions have made life much easier for criminals and have resulted in a dramatic increase in violent crimes. (Melissa Santos Twitter, Paul Graves Facebook Post,  Santos Tweet of State Democrats original statement, Santos Tweet of RCW, Seattle Times, Rebecca Perry Twitter, and KOMO News)

Former Washington State Supreme Court candidate and current municipal court judge Dave Larson is extremely critical of the COVID vaccine mandate Governor Inslee imposed on state workers and is even more concerned with a similar mandate handed down on state judicial employees by the members of the state supreme court.  In a Seattle Times op-ed, Larson argues that the governor does not have the power to impose vaccine requirements as a condition for employment by the state. Only the legislature has this power. Larson believes that the members of the Washington State Supreme Court must now recuse themselves from deciding any future case which involves vaccine requirements for employees since the court members imposed the same requirement for employment on court workers. (Seattle Times and Washington Courts)

Democrat Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler refused to appear at a state senate hearing to defend his very controversial “emergency order” which raised the cost of insurance for millions of Washington State residents.   After Commissioner Kreidler failed to convince legislators during the 2021 session to pass a law banning the use of credit ratings in determining insurance rates, he used the pandemic as an excuse to impose his proposed ban on the state through “emergency order.” On Tuesday the Senate Business, Financial Services, and Trade Committee invited the 78-year-old career politician to defend his actions during a public hearing.  Commissioner Kreidler refused.  Instead the committee heard from dozens of Washington residents who have suddenly seen their insurance rates jump hundreds of dollars.  There is a court challenge to the elusive Kreidler’s action and the chair of the committee, Senator Mark Mullet (D – Issaquah), stated “I’m going to use my powers to ban credit score discounts.” (MyNorthwest)

A Vancouver Columbian editorial is critical of the Democrat-controlled legislature giving 29 tribal casinos the monopoly on the lucrative sports betting business.  As the Washington State Legislature was quickly wrapping up its legislative business at the start of the pandemic in 2020, it passed a bill (HB 2638) which gave tribal casinos (i.e., major donors to Democrat politicians in the state) the exclusive monopoly for legal betting on sports contests.  This obviously upset many non-tribal cardrooms and other gaming establishments.  Already many tribal casinos have begun collecting sports bets and many more will soon be doing the same. The Columbian states the monopoly limits state revenue and keeps non-tribal gambling enterprises “standing on the banks of the revenue stream.” But the Democrats love the river of money coming their way thanks to rewarding their tribal donors. (Vancouver Columbian and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

While Governor Inslee continues to impose mandates which hurt many businesses, the state is easing restrictions regulating those who wish to enter the marijuana business.  Previously, those with a felony conviction within the previous 10 years were normally denied a permit and those with multiple misdemeanor convictions faced difficulties in obtaining state approval.  Yet new rules have eased these regulations, since it is the belief of the members of the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board (chaired by former Inslee Chief of Staff David Postman) that these public safety restrictions were barriers for people of color to enter the marijuana industry, and thus relics of the state’s racist past which have to go. (Crosscut)

The industrious folks at Safe Seattle continue to dig through Seattle City Attorney candidate Nicole Thomas-Kennedy’s (she prefers NTK) old Twitter posts and are finding some real disturbing comments from the extreme activist who wants to be in charge of enforcing Seattle’s laws.  On Christmas Eve of last year, NTK was getting into the seasonal mood by spewing her hate on Twitter, stating that police officers should “eat some covid lace shit & quit ur jobs.” Current polls show she is running slightly behind moderate candidate Ann Davison. Of course, any candidate not named Marx would be more moderate than NTK. (Safe Seattle Facebook post)

After Democrat state lawmakers passed a series of “police reforms” which make it easier to be a criminal in Washington State, the state has decided to get really tough against the true threats to public safety – those who cut in line at ferry terminals.  We know many Washington residents will sleep easier knowing the state will use its full enforcement powers to issue $139 tickets to anyone who cuts in line for ferries that cross Puget Sound. (KOMO News)

After protestors refused to wear masks at a Walla Walla City Council meeting, the meeting was abruptly canceled.  A large crowd of more than 100 people crammed into the city council chambers and adjoining hallway because of false social media rumors that the city was going to impose mask mandates on local businesses.   A few refused to wear masks.  Walla Walla Mayor Tom Scribner said this was in violation of state orders for masks to be worn during indoor gatherings.  After discussions with other city officials and a failed attempt to remove the maskless protestors, the council meeting was canceled. (Walla Walla Union Bulletin)

Kamiakin High School students wanting to attend their Homecoming Dance on Saturday will need to proof of COVID vaccination or a negative test.  The Kennewick high school is allowing either a negative test which had been taken in the previous three days or an instant test which will be administered at the door. (YakTriNews)

The only people who matter are those who live along Puget Sound — in the narrow-minded views of too many Washington State’s Democrat lawmakers.  Those who reside in the rest of the state simply need to adapt to the urban lifestyle, for other chosen ways of life are irrelevant to liberal politicians as they impose their failed Seattle policies onto the rest of the state.  Maybe Democrat legislators should concentrate on fixing the many serious problems within their own communities/legislative districts before they force the causes of those problems (i.e. unchecked liberal policies) onto those who live in the rest of the state. (Click to read full Shift Article)

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