Dori: No surprise, Inslee giving up emergency powers right before general election

It made Thursday headlines when Washington Gov. Jay Inslee announced that his more than 920 days of emergency powers will be coming to an end on Oct. 31.

But the announcement came as no surprise to me. Two weeks ago, I predicted to Dori Monson Show listeners that the governor – who was only one of three in the country to hold an emergency stronghold with no official end date – would relinquish his so-called emergency powers before the November general election.

Gov. Inslee to end COVID-19 state of emergency by Oct. 31

In my Aug. 25 on-air prognostication, I forecasted that Inslee would let the powers go “right about the time ballots go out … and he’s going to try to play it for some kind of electoral advantage on his part.”

Inslee’s logic, as I’m imagining the governor thinking to himself, is “Look at what I and my Democrat party have done, and now – finally – things are so great that I am relinquishing my emergency powers.” And then he’s hoping voters will think the Democrats don’t really stink that bad.

Except that for as long as Inslee and fellow Democrats have controlled both the House and the Senate in Olympia, they have shown to woefully fail the state’s unemployment office; the state’s mental health system, and the state’s transportation system – including Sound Transit which Inslee supports and is tens of billions of dollars over budget and behind schedule.

And these failures don’t even begin to make a dent in how bad the Democrats’ soft-on-crime policies and new laws have become and how their changes have turned lives upside down throughout Washington state.

Yes, the governor is “relinquishing” his emergency powers the week before the Nov. 8 election. But it’s nothing to celebrate. It’s despicable, transparent – and oh, so Jay Inslee.

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