Rantz: Washington Dem chair Tina Podlowdowski caught in humiliating lie

Washington State Democratic party chair Tina Podlodowski was caught in a humiliating lie. It was made worse by doubling down when called out.

This is typical behavior for the failed 2016 Secretary of State candidate.

Bitter from an embarrassing campaign loss in 2016 to Secretary of State Kim Wyman, Podlodowski managed to work her way into the party chair position. Now, she’s hoping to take down popular Secretary Wyman with a flat out lie meant to bolster the Democratic challenger.

Tina Podlowdowski lies

In a series of tweets, Podlodowski claims that Wyman “is calling on voters not to vote in the WA Presidential Primary, due to the requirement to sign a partisan declaration.”

Podlodowski argues Wyman “is simply hiding from her affiliation with Trump, is terrified of losing her seat to Democrat Gael Tarleton, and will do anything to to mask her true colors. Even by not voting and urging others not to vote.”

Hey @washdems, @DNC @DemStateParties @fairfightaction – our WA GOP Secretary of State, is calling on voters not to vote in the WA Presidential Primary, due to the requirement to sign a partisan declaration — something she had NO PROBLEM doing in 2008 or 2016, BTW. So why?

— Tina Podlodowski (@Tinapo) February 25, 2020

Podlodowski even begs the Democratic candidates for President to retweet her claims to “get some amplification” but none listened, showing as Washington’s Democratic chair, she’s about as effective as a video camera in Jeffrey Epstein’s prison cell.

Um, Wyman voted

Podlodowski claims Wyman made the statements in an interview with Todd Herman, filling-in for the Dori Monson Show on KIRO Radio. The statements weren’t made.

While it’s true Wyman said she wasn’t going to participate, she wasn’t talking about voting. She was talking about declaring a party on the outside of the ballot envelope. In two interviews this week on my show, Wyman said she’d vote.

“My ballot… I will return it, but I won’t sign the oath, and my ballot will be one of those that’s probably rejected by the county canvassing board,” Wyman told the Jason Rantz Show on Monday, February 24.

On February 26, Wyman again reiterated on my show that she will “cast a ballot in the presidential primary.” She went on to explain:

I’m gonna turn it into the Thurston County Auditor’s office, but I’m not going to check one of the party oath boxes — neither the Republican or the Democrat one because we only have one candidate option on the Republican side of the ballot.

Like many voters, Wyman believes she should have an unaffiliated option. She doesn’t want to publicly check the Republican affiliation, especially when there is only one candidate, because it effectively makes public a private vote. That lets partisan hacks use her vote to claim she’s incapable of being fair to voters who don’t share her vote.

During my February 24 interview, I asked Wyman, “How much do you worry that it’s going to be used against you by some shady actors on the Left claiming you don’t even vote?”

Her response?

“Oh, I’m sure they’re gonna I’m sure that they’re going to do that, you know? I mean, that’s part of politics.”

Hey, speak of the devil:

Wyman, the senior GOP elected official in WA, is simply hiding from her affiliation with Trump, is terrified of losing her seat to Democrat Gael Tarleton, and will do anything to to mask her true colors. Even by not voting and urging others not to vote.

— Tina Podlodowski (@Tinapo) February 25, 2020

Podlodowski’s dishonest campaign is to help State Rep. Gael Tarleton (D-Seattle) win some votes in Trump-hating Seattle. Wyman has no “affiliation with Trump” beyond being in the same party. Tarleton should condemn this attack against Wyman.

Wyman encourages you to vote

Podlodowski also lied when she claimed Wyman called on voters not to vote. The opposite is true.

In the interview with Todd Herman (and on my show), Wyman literally encouraged people to vote and drop off their ballots at county election offices or drop boxes. She even tried to assuage voters concerned that a postman who sees the party affiliation may “lose” the ballots.

Wyman reminded folks that it would be a federal crime to tamper with your ballot. She then recommended you go online to see if your ballot was received.

This is the literal opposite of telling people not to vote.

Podlodowski called out

Podlodowski’s transparent stunt was called out by folks on Twitter, including Crosscut political reporter Melissa Santos.

Listen to the interview. Her “reasoning” is because of the need to choose party affiliation. Something she had no problem doing in 2008 and 2016. And, she’s unilaterally disclosing party affiliation publicly when that’s not what the statute says can be done. Happy to chat in am. pic.twitter.com/ZJUPRSRlOf

— Tina Podlodowski (@Tinapo) February 26, 2020

I strongly suspect that it would be a violation of public disclosure laws for @secstatewa to collect this info and refuse to distribute it to anyone but the political parties

— Melissa Santos (@MelissaSantos1) February 26, 2020

I also am fairly certain that if @KimWyman12 voted in the Republican primary with Trump being the only candidate on the ballot, you would attack her for supporting Trump, too

— Melissa Santos (@MelissaSantos1) February 26, 2020

Podlodowski has a history of pathetic attacks. When she ran against Wyman in 2016, Podlodowski pulled a similar stunt. It backfired.

In an ad posted on Oct. 18 to her YouTube channel, Podlodowski criticized Wyman for allowing a Washington Republican primary to move forward despite knowing at the time that Trump had enough votes to secure the Republican nomination. She said Wyman wasted $11 million taxpayer dollars.

At the time I noted state law actually prohibits the Secretary of State from canceling a primary election. Only the Legislature can do that. Podlodowski not understanding how elections work was the reason she was trounced in 2016.

To be fair to Podlodowski

It’s unfair to wholly criticize Podlodowski for her transparent attack against Wyman.

Podlodowski got a few things right and it’s important, out of fairness, to acknowledge that. She was correct to say Wyman is the Secretary of State. She also correctly noted that there’s a primary election on March 10th.

Beyond this, pretty much everything claimed is wrong. To get that much wrong is willful. Podlodowski is a liar and she’s doing so with malicious intent, fueled by sour grapes from the 2016 election.

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