The race we like to refer to as the (McDermott) Hunger Games recently took a couple of rather interesting turns.
First, liberal blog Publicola pointed out that King County council member Joe McDermott — according to his internal campaign poll — has a 26-point lead over his nearest opponent. Additionally, the council member, who happens to share a last name with retiring U.S. representative Jim McDermott, has the “best favorability ratio as well.”
McDermott’s competitors aren’t buying the internal polling. Publicola:
“Jayapal had no comment on (Joe) McDermott’s internal polling. And Walkinshaw’s campaign doesn’t buy the internal poll, writing off (Joe) McDermott’s high favorability ratings to a mix up with outgoing icon Jim McDermott.”
So, Joe McDermott’s two opponents chose different shade-throwing tactics. State Senator Pramila Jayapal’s campaign staff didn’t want the poll to get more attention, so they just won’t talk about it. And, State Representative Brady Walkinshaw’s campaign assumes that there is no way that Jim McDermott is that popular and so just attributes the numbers to low-information voters picking the most familiar name (which, considering it is Seattle, sounds plausible).
But, that’s not the only interesting piece of information to come out of the (Jim McDermott) Hunger Games.
In an ironic twist considering her hypersensitive, politically correct tendencies, Jayapal is “facing accusations of religious discrimination and racism from a person of color who was briefly hired by her campaign.”
Apparently, Jayapal’s campaign hired the man– who (according to Publicola) identifies as a Hebrew of Israelite descent — then fired him after he told the campaign he couldn’t work on Saturdays due to the Sabbath. The man has accused Jayapal of violating his civil rights and of racism.
Jayapal’s campaign confirmed that the man was fired over the scheduling issue. They campaign pointed out that “working on Saturdays is ‘essential and critical’ to the job; the seven-days-a-week job involves coordinating volunteers to doorbell on the weekends.” Jayapal’s campaign also insists that the man was told of the weekend requirement during the interview process — something the man insists did not happen.
While the lawsuit sounds frivolous, it does give Jayapal a taste of the kind of hypersensitive “no-one-can-do-anything-or-say-anything” climate liberals like her love to champion. But, consider that the issue — in the end — is about employment policies, we have a couple of relevant questions to throw in the mix.
If Jayapal’s campaign requires someone to work 7 days a week, and 12 hours a day on Saturday and Sunday, are they paying a $15-hour minimum wage? And, are they paying double-time on weekends and triple time for shifts over 8 hours?
Somehow, though that’s what Jayapal expects small businesses to do, we think the answer is “no.” After all, liberals live in a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do sort of world.
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