SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Will Dori Monson challenge Jay Inslee for governor in 2020?

Aug 22, 2019, 4:55 PM | Updated: Aug 23, 2019, 10:17 am

washington governor, health care, transit...

The Washington State Capitol Building in Olympia. (AP)

(AP)

It finally happened — Jay Inslee at last abandoned his failing presidential campaign. However, he also announced he is seeking a third term as governor.

Now the dominoes are going to start toppling, because Inslee was going to be president, Attorney General Bob Ferguson was going to become governor, and King County Executive Dow Constantine was going to have his King County Sheriff’s protection unit drive him around.

But now, Inslee is going to stay governor, Ferguson is going to stay attorney general, and Dow Constantine goes back to being King County Executive.

So nothing is going to change around here.

How Dori would fix Seattle as mayor

I love my radio show and I’ve said I will never get into politics. I would find a political career tedious. But, if I were to run for governor next year, I guarantee you that I would beat Inslee. There truly is not the tiniest shred of doubt in my mind about that.

For instance, we can’t have homeless drug vagrants all over the streets. We need a mental health system that works. Under Jay Inslee, Western State Hospital got de-certified and lost its federal funding. The Evergreen State College’s enrollment is dropping dramatically, so let’s just get rid of Evergreen State as a public college and turn it into the biggest nuthouse in the state — I mean, it’s already 90 percent of the way there.

In all seriousness, the very first thing I would as governor do is look at reducing the size of state government by at least 25 percent. That would save us $13.5 billion per year. I would have massive tax cuts for the people, so that they can finally start keeping more of their money. And the first areas I would fund would be roads, public safety — our cops, prosecutors, and jails — and our schools. Those would be the top priorities.

Every other area of spending would be optional. We would figure out what serves an important role and what doesn’t. We would never have to raise taxes, because all of those things would be funded with the very first dollars going to Olympia.

We need a better mental health system, so that all of the people on the streets suffering from mental illness can have somewhere to go. We would stop allowing drugs in Seattle and King County, and we would expand jails — if people shoot up heroin on the streets, we’ll put them in the pokey. They can either get services — drug rehab, mental health treatment, job training, and housing — or they can go to jail, but they cannot just sit on the streets and shoot up heroin like they’re doing now.

Oh, and along with investing more in roads, we would get away from the insanity and corruption that is Sound Transit.

That would all happen in the first 10 days. Because you see, during the campaign, everyone would see the wisdom of my platform and come together. They would say, “Do whatever you want, Dori.” We would be able to turn things around so quickly if we all worked together like that.

I need to mull this over. I still have to talk to my wife about it. But wouldn’t she make a wonderful first lady of Washington? We would make such a fantastic team in Olympia.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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Will Dori Monson challenge Jay Inslee for governor in 2020?