Partisan Politics In Recent Regional Reopening

Last week Governor Jay Inslee announced the latest step in his refurbished regional reopening plan and it went down as more partisan politics in the eyes of the 13th District legislative team.

You'll recall the Central Puget Sound region is entering “Phase 2” of Inslee’s latest “Roadmap to Recovery.” State Senator Judy Warnick, Representative Tom Dent and Representative Alex Ybarra, like so many other eastside legislators, have been trying to make the decision makers realize the unique situation of rural and eastern Washington. For the most part we get up and go to work without the luxury of working from home on computers.

A press release from Senator Warnick's indicates that not all on the left support Inslee's actions, "The latest move has sparked criticism even from members of the governor’s own party, whose largely rural and coastal communities are forced to remain closed. One democratic lawmaker said, …it is clear that the governor’s plan exhibits a disastrous disconnect with the realities of our communities.....the District 13 legislators are concerned that this new plan is based more on partisan politics than science."

13th District Representative Tom Dent is one of our favorite legislators. He appeared on the KIT Morning News A couple of weeks ago to talk about the State's Covid plans. He has a no-nonsense straight shooter kinda style. When he heard of the Governor's Puget Sound Planned Opening to phase 2 Dent said, "When I saw the details of this latest reopening plan, I said to myself, are you kidding me?...Our communities have been patiently waiting, in many respects doing the right thing, but are unacceptably left out of this.”

The 13th District team say they plan to continue to push colleagues to move swiftly at "implementing a more scientific and common sense-based approach to reopening. A bipartisan measure, Senate Bill 5114, which received broad public support during committee hearings, would immediately move all of Washington into Phase 2."

Categories: Coronavirus updates, Politics