SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Governor Inslee spends more time traveling than fixing Washington

Aug 29, 2018, 7:00 AM

Inslee, Jay Inslee...

In this photo taken June 21, 2018 and provided by the National Governors Association, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, right, and South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard, left, sit in front of a painting made by Inslee as they take part in a panel titled "The Intersection Between the Arts and Commerce in the States" at a meeting in Santa Fe, New Mexico. (Rebecca Drobis/National Governors Association via AP)

(Rebecca Drobis/National Governors Association via AP)

Governor Jay Inslee is hitting the road to go fundraising for Democratic gubernatorial candidates around the country because he’s the head of the Democratic Governors Association.

According to the Seattle Times, Inslee spent 49 days out of state this year fundraising for Democrats around the country. He spoke at dinners and conferences, attended meetings, and participated in fundraisers in San Francisco, Washington, D.C., New York, Hawaii, Iowa, New Orleans, and Miami.

The Miami trip was just a couple of days after it was announced that Western State Hospital was losing federal funding — because it’s horribly run. Ultimately, the failure of our state’s largest psychiatric hospital was Governor Jay Inslee’s responsibility, but he was off to Miami to raise money for the Democrats. And the day before it was announced that the hospital failed, Inslee was busy fundraising in Iowa.

RELATED: Governor Jay Inslee ignores Washington’s problems

A lot of people are questioning his priorities. In our state, we’ve got lots of problems. We have gridlock everywhere. In our biggest city, Seattle, we’ve got the worst property crime of any major city in the nation. We’ve got one of the worst heroin problems in the country and one of the worst homeless problems in the country. We spend a billion dollars a year in Seattle and King County on homelessness, only to see the problem get worse and worse.

Maybe, Mr. Governor, should you be governing in our state instead of flying all around the country raising money for other governors? And not only does he put all his effort into fundraising — while he’s on the road he does TV appearances on any network that will have him, because he wants to be president in 2020. He has to go all around the country to be a hero of the “resistance.” And, of course, he gets to meet with potential donors.

Governor Jay Inslee spends all of his time traveling to other states. That really sounds like the people of Washington are getting their money’s worth out of their governor.

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Dori: Governor Inslee spends more time traveling than fixing Washington