Jay Inslee’s Million Dollar Ad Buy (Funded by the Taxpayers)

As primary ballots have hit mailboxes over the past week, so too have postcards instructing voters who live in the old 1st district and new 1st, 2nd, 6th or 7th, on  how to vote in their congressional primary.  Because Congressman Jay Inslee decided that focusing on his political career was more important than fulfilling his obligation to the constituents who elected him in good faith, a million dollars from the state’s overly stretched coffers have gone to printing the informative postcards (see attached). Additionally, perhaps you have seen the ads running on television starring famed travel guru, Democrat, and Jay Inslee supporter (see attached) Rick Steves (conflict of interest, anyone?). Payment for those came out of the state’s stretched coffers as well. Why? Because for people living in the old 1st, this election is going to be like an Abbot and Costello skit.

Inslee is one of 14 House Members now running for statewide office, however, he is the only one who quit Congress to do so. With millions in transfers from the Washington State Democrats, and his congressional campaign account, Jay has plenty of spare change in his bank account. He’s sending out daily pleas for more money to “keep his momentum going” but with all this money, he has no plan to pay the state for the huge bill he handed them. What about Washington state’s momentum? Spending other people’s money seems to be par for the course for Jay though. One glance at his plans for Washington state show that, if elected Governor, he plans to continue the trend of spending money we don’t have by cramming Olympia with more bureaucracy. Much like how he voted repeatedly in Congress to spend money our country doesn’t have. What he doesn’t seem to understand is that this is real money we’re talking about, not monopoly money. And it belongs to the taxpayers, not him.

Something else to notice in the lead up to the primary is what you haven’t gotten in your mailbox. This year, voter’s pamphlets were not printed and mailed because of tight budgets. Cost to print and mail voter pamphlets so that everyone could be informed on the candidates? $1 million. Cost to the state to cover for the mess made by Jay quitting? $1 million. So $1 million to keep everyone informed or $1 million to explain an unnecessary mess to 1/10th of the population? Unfortunately, Jay made the decision for us.