With the 2016 legislative session winding down (hopefully as scheduled tomorrow), the state’s campaign season will kick-off in earnest. Republicans will be doing everything in their power to fight off nasty Democrat campaign to hold the state Senate and win a majority in the state House for the first time since 1998.
Democrats’ currently hold a narrow 50-48 majority in the House – their slimmest majority since one of the same size in 2002, when Frank Chopp first became Speaker – placing a GOP takeover well within reach this November.
Additionally, Republican Bill Bryant, a former Seattle Port Commissioner, is well into his campaign against Jay Inslee. And, of course, our green governor is widely acknowledged as a weak and ineffective leader, with one longtime Seattle writer suggesting that the only man who can save Jay Inslee would be Donald Trump.
Beyond hoping for Trump dragging down all other Republicans, the other key man for the Democrats in Washington State is none other than far-Left California billionaire Tom Steyer. According to reports, the extreme “green” hypocrite – and BFF of Inslee’s – has already put $13 million of his own money into his super PAC, the Next Gen Climate Action Committee, for this election cycle.
Contrast that figure with the $9.3 million Steyer had given his PAC by this time in 2014. By the end of the 2014 election cycle, Steyer was the largest dark-money donor in the country, pumping a whopping $66.9 million into his super PAC. Ultimately, NextGen funneled $19.5 million directly into 2014 congressional midterm races to urge the public to vote for or against certain candidates.
Steyer’s dark-money PAC has not spent any money promoting or opposing any candidate thus far in 2016. However, it has “laid out more than $17 million already for expenses like digital advertising and direct mail, as well as for issue-based TV ads that don’t mention candidates” in an effort to promote Steyer’s extreme “green” agenda.
In 2014, Steyer attempted to influence Washington State politics by buying the state Senate for Jay Inslee, to ensure smooth sailing for their shared – and twisted – far-left agenda. Groups funded by Steyer, like the Washington Conservation Voters (WCV), pumped millions into the attempt to unseat State Senators like Steve O’Ban, Andy Hill and Doug Erickson. Unfortunately for Steyer – but fortunately for Washington taxpayers – voters rejected these slimy attacks and Steyer failed to win a single seat he went after, keeping the Republicans in the Senate majority.
The extreme “green” billionaire will try again in 2016. Steyer has already pledged to, once again, involve himself (and his money) in state-level elections. Certainly, Steyer is sure to come to the aid of Inslee, his fellow extreme “green” activist.
In fact, back in November 2015, Steyer and other top liberal donors—operating under the umbrella of George Soros’ Democracy Alliance—met in Washington D.C. to discuss their 2016 strategy.
According to reports, the Democracy Alliance’s so-called 2020 Vision declared the intention to “invest in local and state organizations with an eye toward boosting their advocacy and organizing capabilities, while continuing to funnel money to larger groups like the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters.”
Specifically, the group plans to “steer cash to groups fighting for environmental causes and candidates in key states,” and “invest in local and state organizations with an eye toward boosting their advocacy and organizing capabilities.”
Steyer has already signaled that those “key states” and “local and state organizations” include Washington State and certain extreme “green” organizations operating in our state. Based on his past contributions, it’s safe to assume that the “green” organizations include the Progress Alliance of Washington—the secretive, state-level copycat of the Democracy Alliance.
There is a level of incredible hypocrisy to it all. You see, Democrats consistently attack the influence of big money in politics, but completely ignore the reality that much of it is provided by their deep-pocketed donors like Steyer and Nick Hanauer.
The Seattle PI’s Joel Connelly, like many in the so-called mainstream media, misses the Left’s incredible hypocrisy when he details why he believes Democrats “need a catchy slogan to demonize” gubernatorial candidate Bill Bryant. He suggests that the state Democrat Party is the driving force behind the negative attacks on Republicans, completely ignoring the big-money network that funds and actually drives the effort.
The only groups Connelly points to are Working Washington (actually a labor front group) and the Washington Community Action Network (actually funded by the Progress Alliance). Conveniently, he makes no mention of Steyer, Hanauer, or the Progress Alliance itself. He even neglects to remind his readers how much money liberal billionaires have funneled into Democrat attack campaigns in our state.
Nor does he mention that the Democrats have their own in-state Super PAC that pumped over $9 million in attack ads to help Jay Inslee in 2012 – a group called “Our Washington.” The group is funded by a who’s who of unions (the state labor council, WEA, SEIU, public employees, etc), trial lawyers, and (for those who don’t want their donations made public) the Democrat Governors Association.
Of course, those points don’t quite fit into the Left’s narrative (something Connelly can be relied on to push in his “reporting”). It’s much easier to suggest that a slogan does the dirty work for the Democrats, rather than admit the party is bought and paid for by rich liberals operating in the dark-money shadows.
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