Inside Opinion » Jay Inslee

Throw every legal penalty in sight at DUI drivers

TNT Editorial Board — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 23:33:40 +0000

This editorial will appear in Sunday’s print edition.

Unfortunately, it is very easy to make the case for cracking down harder on drunken and drugged driving, as Gov. Jay Inslee has just proposed.

Where to begin? Last time we visited this subject, three weeks ago, we cited the appalling case of a multiple offender accused of plowing into a family – killing two of them – in Seattle.
We could have mentioned the Gig Harbor man charged with vehicular homicide last month after – according to police – he crashed his car at high speed near Purdy and killed …

McKenna on why he lost

Cheryl Tucker — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 22:02:18 +0000

Erik Smith has an interesting interview with Rob McKenna on the Washington State Wire, dissecting the former attorney general’s thoughts on why he lost the gubernatorial race to Democrat Jay Inslee in November. Read it here.

McKenna points to the lack of success all but one Republican had in getting elected statewide in Washington and cites growing partisan polarization and being hurt by the national party’s image problems. Even though he had most newspaper endorsements (including The News Tribune’s) and carried ~~47 of the state’s 49~~ a majority of the state’s legislative districts, he couldn’t overcome the overwhelmingly Democratic …

Union offers Inslee a test of independence he must pass

TNT Editorial Board — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 01:45:35 +0000

This editorial will appear in Thursday’s print edition.

One concern that many – including this newspaper’s editorial board – have about Jay Inslee is that the state’s next governor might be too cozy with the public employee unions.

Now the union representing Washington State Patrol troopers and sergeants – which endorsed Rob McKenna for governor – has conveniently proposed an early test of how independent Inslee might be. The union has called on him to dump WSP Chief John Batiste and replace him with its hand-picked choice, Lakewood Police Chief Bret Farrar.

Apparently Batiste – who served in the patrol …

Our hopes and wishes for a brighter new year

TNT Editorial Board — Tue, 01 Jan 2013 04:41:36 +0000

This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

Shake up that Etch A Sketch. A new year dawns – and so does hope that the world can move beyond the blunders, disappointments and nasty predicaments of 2012.
Some of our hopes for 2013:

• The drawdown of U.S. troops – including Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldiers – continues on course in Afghanistan. The bleeding ends.

• The Seahawks win the Super Bowl in February.

• Gov. Jay Inslee proves better at finding money for public schools than his campaign rhetoric suggested.

• Washington’s pot smokers obey the law that legalized marijuana – especially the …

Gregoire’s DOA budget plan offers roadmap of possible routes

TNT Editorial Board — Sun, 23 Dec 2012 00:04:28 +0000

This editorial will appear in Sunday’s print edition.

Entering her last few weeks as governor, Chris Gregoire tied up one of her constitutionally mandated duties Tuesday. She presented a 2013-2015 budget that makes cuts, raises taxes and is, almost certainly, dead on arrival.

But there’s value in this $34 billion lame-duck proposal, if only to frame the huge challenge before incoming governor Jay Inslee, the Democratic House and the closely divided Senate as they try to reach consensus on a budget.

As in years past, they’ll face a deficit (just under $1 billion), a still-shaky economy and a voter-approved initiative …

6 days from election, the scariest Halloween of all

TNT Editorial Board — Wed, 31 Oct 2012 02:45:12 +0000

This editorial will appear in Wednesday’s print editon.

Witches, zombies, ghosts and ghouls. Lions and tigers and bears. Dare we venture out after dark with election day so close at hand?

A pall of horror shrouds the ballot from top to bottom.

It begins with revelations of Barack Obama conniving with top advisers to let terrorists kill his ambassador to Libya – perhaps in expiation for any sins he didn’t cover in his apology tour of the Middle East.

Mitt Romney is no less spooky: He said “binders of women” instead of “binders of names of women,” a telling omission …

Washington will fare best with McKenna as governor

TNT Editorial Board — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 00:33:41 +0000

Rob McKenna

This editorial will appear in Sunday’s print edition.

Washington has two substantial candidates for governor this year, state Attorney General Rob McKenna and Jay Inslee. McKenna is the standout.

Inslee, a Democrat, has had a creditable career as a federal lawmaker. He represented the 1st Congressional District from 1999 until earlier this year, when he stepped down to focus on the governor’s race.

One stark difference between the two is administrative experience. Inslee’s résumé has nothing to compare with McKenna’s eight years running the
Office of the Attorney General, which amounts to …

Democrats twist truth in attacking McKenna on education

TNT Editorial Board — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 00:45:26 +0000

This editorial will appear in Wednesday’s print edition.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna says he wants to add $1 billion to the state’s public education budget. Now some Democrats are claiming that he favored cutting money for the state’s schools.

Somebody’s peddling an election season falsehood, and it’s not McKenna.

It would be convenient for McKenna’s opponent, Democrat Jay Inslee, if the Republican were trying to strangle K-12 funding. That stance would destroy McKenna’s standing among the centrist and independent voters he needs to get elected.

But that’s not the case, as the Seattle Times reported Monday.

The …

Question for the Inslee campaign

Cheryl Tucker — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 13:45:08 +0000

Don’t you have any supporters in the South Sound?

We’re getting a lot of letters to the editor supporting Democrat Jay Inslee for governor – all from Seattle. We won’t be running any of them in print; one was approved for online only.

We’re trying hard to get in all the letters written by people who actually live in our circulation area; if we started running Seattle letters we’d have to devote most of our print space to letters. Plus, if you think about it, running a bunch of pro-Inslee letters from Seattleites probably would hurt him more than help …

In these primaries, the best candidates are self-evident

TNT Editorial Board — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 02:50:04 +0000

This editorial will appear in Friday’s print edition.

We put a fair amount of work – interviews, homework, discussion – into most of our primary endorsements. In a few cases, we don’t have to.

We don’t interview or endorse statewide candidates who don’t have a major party behind them. We like the idea of electing a good maverick as much as anyone, but the odds only stretch so far. The days when George Washington could get elected by ladling out rum from town to town are long gone. If you don’t have a big organization and at least some money …