State Sen. Muzzall on bipartisan support of insurance commissioner to resign

After it came out that Washington state Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler fired a whistleblower in his office who had filed a complaint about inappropriate comments started last week, state senators from both sides of the aisle have taken up the call for his resignation. One of them, State Senator Ron Muzzall-R of Oak Harbor, came on the Jason Rantz show to discuss the scandal and why he thinks both Republicans and Democrats are uniting against Kreidler.

One of the most prominent voices that have asked for Kreidler to step down is Washington Governor Jay Inslee, who released a statement last Friday saying that the state “[needs] different leadership in this position.”

“I’m honestly pretty impressed that the governor turned on one of his own party and as asking him to resign,” Muzzall said. “I think that the governor’s pressure brings more pressure to bear on him, this is kind of a long, sad saga, when you look back on it over the last year or year and a half and what has transpired”

Inslee joins calls for Insurance Commissioner to resign, Kreidler refuses

After accusations of racist language surfaced in April, only a month after complaints of abusive language used when speaking to staff, many within the state legislature are questioning if the 78-year-old commissioner, who has been serving since 2000, is what the state needs moving forward.

“This has been going on his issues with staff is inappropriate comments, outlined a number of things, including the fact that Kreidler had received gifts that were inappropriate that he should not have kept,”   I have to wonder … if he is actually competent to stand as our insurance commissioner.”

The incident Muzzall is referring to is a Peace Lily gifted to his office that some staff felt might have violated state ethics guidelines.

“We’re all in a state where we profess anyhow to be very much in for whistleblowers against any kind of harassment,” Muzzall continued. “We profess to be very, very progressive on these kinds of things, and then we allow an insurance commissioner to do that.”