Democrat state Senator Mark Mullet credits his slim lead to Republicans

If you think the presidential race is close, Washington State’s 5th Legislative District race is about as tight as can be. Incumbent Senator Mark Mullet (D-Issaquah) joined the Dori Monson Show to discuss the race with opponent Ingrid Anderson, who previously received the backing of Governor Jay Inslee.

As Dori noted, Mullet was down a couple days ago by around 1,000 votes, and as of the broadcast was up by less than 50. It tightened by 34 votes on Friday.

“Yeah, it’s close. But I think, to be honest, the big difference between the primary and the general is in the general, I think more Republicans realized that if they don’t fill in a bubble in the race, the extreme left wins. That’s why we benefited from the late Republican surge,” he said. “Republicans voted later in the state on Monday and Tuesday because they actually filled in a bubble. We got a lift from that, you know, whereas in the primary they were leaving their bubbles blank and so we didn’t get any lift on the late Republican surge.”

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“I think this is a message for Republicans in the Puget Sound region. You’re going to have more of these battles where they try to eliminate moderates. And I think Republicans have to realize that they have actually a lot of control in those battles,” he added. “They have to fill in a bubble. If they don’t fill in a bubble, they are ceding their control to the far left.”

Mullet says not falling into the party line and previous opposition to some tax increases has led to hostility from many other Democrats in the Senate.

“I know there are going to be proposals put forward for exactly that (tax increases). I think that’s why there was such a huge effort to get me out the Senate from the far left. That’s why they put the $2.2 million in to get me out of there,” Mullet said. “My plan is to explain that the business community is already going to have a big tax hit to rightsizing the unemployment insurance trust fund. The trust fund got depleted through no fault of any business owners. That was a public health mandate that businesses had to shut down, and there’s already going to be a tax increase there.”

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“And so that’s my plan, is to explain to my colleagues, ‘Hey, there’s already going to be a burden on the business community to right-size the unemployment insurance trust fund.’ Let’s not, you know, add insult to injury by putting a bunch of other tax proposals out there as well.”

Dori had one other question: “Is it safe and fair to say that what eventually put you over the top was the Dori Monson endorsement?,” he joked

“There is no control group. We can never go back and find out who listens to your show and who doesn’t,” Mullet said, laughing. “Unless that’s one of the things they check on the ballot returns.”

“It probably hurt much more than it helped for a Democrat on the ticket,” Dori added.

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