Where does Inslee stand heading into the first Democratic debate?

On Wednesday Governor Jay Inslee will get his biggest audience yet as he takes the stage for first of the Democratic debates. With 20 plus candidates, the debates will be shown over two nights, with 10 candidates on Wednesday and another 10 on Thursday. Sufficed to say, he’s not expected to get much time to speak.

Will Inslee show the world why he’s still at 1 percent in polls or will he be able to get a post-debate bump, perhaps to 2 percent?

“You know what’s so sad is where he’s positioned; he’s in the far right side of the stage,” Curley said. “So the top socialists that are running are there right in the middle, and then you get Inslee all the way off to the one side.”

Inslee will be positioned between Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii and Representative John Delaney from Maryland, with Elizabeth Warren and Beto O’Rourke in the center of the stage.

In numerous recent polls, Inslee has run at or below at 1 percent. Despite the low poll numbers, the Inslee campaign is boasting that its fundraising effort is outpacing other Democratic presidential hopefuls, taking in $2.25 million in its first month.

Inslee polling behind ‘someone else’ but raises $2.25 million

The last few months have seen Inslee engage in a media blitz, where the Washington governor participated in a CNN town hall, spoke at Columbia University’s Global Energy Summit in New York, and appeared on both The View and The Daily Show.

Inslee told The Seattle Times that he expects to have about eight minutes on stage in total, and that he’s not discouraged by the otherwise discouraging poll numbers. Curley thinks he should be, and is not too happy about what this campaign is costing the state.

Inslee pressed on serious answers to big questions

“It’s costing taxpayers $4 million for him to go around the country and to masquerade as a possible presidential candidate. We’re paying him to be the governor of the State of Washington. We’re not paying him to run around and act like he wants to be president,” Curley said.

“The question is: Should the legislators pass a law that if you if you are a sitting governor and you decide you want to go then travel around the United States and cost the taxpayers $4 million in additional security for you, do you have to come back once a week and do some sort of work? Or when you fail and lose the presidency — but then you go ahead and cash in on speaking events and book tours — you then pay back a portion of it back to the taxpayers of the state that you’ve come from?”

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