‘Things get worse’: Walsh warns a Democratic supermajority in Olympia would let the party rewrite the rules

Washington State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh said Democrats are within reach of a legislative supermajority this November, needing seven seats in the House and three in the Senate to reach the threshold.

Walsh joined “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio, where host John Curley asked him to explain what happens when one party holds that much power in Olympia.

“Things get worse,” Walsh said. “Specifically, they can start monkeying around with the state constitution, something we don’t want, and more generally, whatever party has that kind of a majority or supermajority, they get very arrogant, they get sloppy, and they get stupid, and the people end up paying the price.”

Walsh said he doesn’t expect Democrats to reach a supermajority, pointing to competitive races in the 17th and 18th legislative districts and predicting Republicans will pick up seats rather than lose ground. He also pointed to Washington’s August primary date as a structural problem for turnout, saying it falls while families are on vacation and kids are out of school.

“The biggest problem in the primary is the voter turnout is atrocious,” Walsh said. “It’s really low.”

Walsh calls on two Ferguson-appointed justices to recuse themselves from income tax rulings

Curley and Walsh also discussed four contested seats on the Washington Supreme Court, where Walsh argued two justices appointed by Gov. Bob Ferguson, Theo Angelus and Colleen Melody, should commit now to recusing themselves from any case involving the state’s income tax, citing their ties to the governor and, in Melody’s case, her prior work at the Attorney General’s Office when the tax was drafted.

“If Angelus hems and haws and says, ‘Oh, I care about the children and all this other blarney,’ and will not announce now that he will recuse himself from any ruling, any judgment, any hearing related to the state income tax, then we need to vote that guy out,” Walsh said. “And the same goes for Colleen Melody. It’s probably worse for Melody.”

Curley presses Walsh on what’s keeping Republican-friendly issues from moving voters

Curley pointed to lopsided polling on issues like barring transgender athletes from girls’ sports and juvenile crime, asking why those positions haven’t translated into stronger Republican turnout. Walsh argued Democrats deflect from unpopular state policies by nationalizing races around President Donald Trump.

“We’re not talking about D.C. We’re talking about Olympia,” Walsh said. “The left wingers running for the state legislature and for the Washington Supreme Court, they can’t defend their bad policies … so they scream Trump, Trump, Trump.”

Walsh pointed to the Keeping Families Together Act and the state’s approach to juvenile crime as examples, and said low turnout, not policy popularity, remains the party’s core challenge heading into November.

“Maybe we’ve become too clever and too digital and too social media,” Walsh said. “Maybe we need to get back to shoe leather politics. Go knock on doors. Go eye to eye with people.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Follow @https://twitter.com/jcurleyshow