Washington’s primary election is next Tuesday featuring local elections across the state.  While media attention has been dominated by the seven Seattle City Council races on the ballot, this week’s Shift Newsmaker Interview with Spokane Good Government Alliance (SGGA) Executive Director John Estey puts a spotlight on the important elections taking place in the state’s second largest city.  According to Estey, the City of Spokane is at a major crossroads, with moderates/conservatives seeking a much different path for the city than the one liberals/extremists are proposing.

The marquee race is for Mayor, where incumbent Nadine Woodward has faced obstacles since her election in 2019 from five liberal councilmembers who have controlled the seven-person city council. The mayor is challenged for re-election this year by career politician and former Governor Jay Inslee cabinet member Lisa Brown. Four of the seven city council seats (including City Council President) are also up for election.

You can read more from Estey about the mission of the Spokane Good Government Alliance, the issues its members are most concerned with going into the 2023 elections, and how Shift readers can learn more about getting involved with SGGA here.

One of the Democrats ultra-liberal state Attorney General candidates is joining her main challenger in getting her campaign off to an embarrassing start – though unlike the sloppy administrative error that plagued her opponent (which Shift highlighted), State Senate Manka Dhingra is stepping into defending her use of public resources to get a better political job, whining to Center Square that “with the rules now changed retroactively, I will be reimbursing the Senate for mileage expenses incurred for this event.”

That’s right, the Lefty who wants to be the state’s top cop wanted her obviously unethical behavior to be excused on a technicality – and once it was not, she tried to confuse the issue by telling the Seattle Times that “I wasn’t aware that I could not tell people to register to vote in my official capacity as a state senator.” You can read more about how it was actually Sen. Dhingra’s (and Governor Jay Inslee’s) highly partisan attacks at what turned out to be a state-sponsored campaign rally which got them in trouble here… Shift, Center Square, Seattle Times.

The ongoing saga of how the Democrats running the legislature really don’t want the public to know what they are doing has resulted, according to the McClatchey-owned Olympian, in another “lawsuit filed in Thurston County Superior Court (which) alleges that Washington state Senators have been ‘silently withholding’ public records. The lawsuit, filed by open government advocate Arthur West of Olympia, stems from the receipt of new records provided to West, McClatchy and others.”

This secrecy issue followed the Democrats throughout the most recent legislative session, as “McClatchy first reported in January on state lawmakers’ use of legislative privilege, a legally untested concept under which lawmakers justify the withholding of documents from public review.” You can read how legislators continue to thumb their nose at the courts, the media, and of course the public, here… The Olympian.

People across the region now know how safe and secure it is for the homeless squatting on Washington State land, under the watchful eye of Seattle officials, after KOMO reports that an “explosion at a homeless encampment outside Harborview Medical Center in Seattle was the result of ‘multiple explosive devices’ being detonated, possibly in connection to an ongoing battle for control of the drug trade among the homeless, according to a newly-released police report.” That event has forced Jay Inslee’s bureaucrats at the “Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) (to issue) an emergency order to remove the encampment due to ‘significant criminal activity’ and the risk to people at the hospital and drivers on I-5 in downtown Seattle.” You can read more about just another unfolding human disaster on state property here… KOMO.

Hardly a day goes by without another story about how the far-Left majorities running our state have tipped the scales of justice in favor of criminals and against the police. From essentially legalizing hard drugs to making it illegal for cops to pursue car thieves, Democrats have been busy in Olympia advancing their anti-police political agenda. Fox 13 reported on one of their changes “(F)ollowing a triple shooting involving teens in Lynnwood, Snohomish County Sheriff Adam Fortney (said) state laws make investigating gang violence involving kids a challenge.”

You can read more about how, according to Sheriff Fortney, “We literally cannot talk to juvenile, criminal suspects in the state of Washington under the rules” here… Fox 13.

Are you attending the 2023 Summer Freedom Fest hosted by Let’s Go Washington? This year’s hosts include KVI 570 Radio’s John Carlson and [un]Divided’s Brandi Kruse. Learn more here.

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