Washington State Attorney General, Rob McKenna who can best be described as a slightly left of center moderate Republican, has wanted to become governor of Washington State for a very long time. To that goal, the Washington State Republican Party placed all of their electoral eggs in his basket for the 2012 election, edging any others out of his way and WSRP Chair, Kirby Wilbur declaring him “the only credible Republican” early in the race, mid-December 2011.
As expected, McKenna survived the top two primaries August 7, but is running well behind the Democrat, former Congressman Jay Inslee and slipping further back with each subsequent update as ballot counts are finalized, nearly 45,000 behind currently.
With party faithful lining behind their respective candidates, polls looked to independent voters early where McKenna was leading Inslee by 48% to 34% margin.
As we entered the August 7 primary, Inslee was leading by as much as 7%.
What happened?
Rob McKenna and his handlers is what happened. Following in the footsteps of several past elections where Republicans easily snatched defeat out of victory, Rob is not speaking a clear message that leaves voters confused and whoever is dreaming up the television ads needs fired!
For example, scripted gestures, poorly executed lines and actually having Rob jogging behind his wife as she turns back asking, “can you keep up” and reusing the campaign slogan, “A New Direction” of Democrat Nancy Pelosi from the 2006 elections?
At the same time, Democrats are running an ad of Jay Inslee next to a bulldozer talking of how he was a heavy equipment operator to work his way through college.
The WSRP may as well erect a flashing neon sign above McKenna’s head screaming WIMP!
McKenna is also coming across as out of touch with mainstream citizens, blue collar workers in the state who have been struggling through this ‘Great Recession’ we remain mired in. He is making conflicting comments and they are being noticed.
For voters in Southwest Washington, his recent visit for a Rotary Club luncheon left many believing he supports the most expensive and largest project ever foisted on us that could plunge Southwest Washington into bankruptcy, the Columbia River Crossing and having Portland, Oregon’s financially failing light rail forced on us, with Clark County taxpayers expected to pay the lion’s share of the cost of construction and operations and maintenance from over a mile inside of Oregon to Clark College, as well as Oregon income tax for those Washington residents forced to work in Oregon.
I was one of several who took his words at the luncheon to mean he supported the CRC. As noted in the comments at the link, McKenna’s Clark County Campaign Chair, Peter Van Nortwick stated McKenna does not, based upon a text message received.
Stevie Mathieu, who authored the article for the local paper left a comment on her article stating in part, “I just want to point out that McKenna did not mention light rail yesterday during his talk. He mentioned the need to replace the Interstate 5 Bridge, but he did not go into specifics or even say that he supports the current CRC plan.”
She then linked back to earlier articles where she was able to discuss CRC and light rail with Rob, which clears up nothing as in March of 2012, Mckenna was saying, “Tolls can be a component of funding new infrastructure. But first you need a project that has been agreed upon.”
Tolls have been a very contentious point since CRC was dreamed up and voters have been denied a voice by being allowed to vote again if we even want it, since we voted it down in the past.
McKenna did say then that voters in the C-Tran taxing district “ought to have a say,” but that too has been a sore point as those outside of the taxing district end up paying a tax they were denied a vote in.
He has called light rail “a good technology,” adding “I’m a strong believer in the value of public transit. But it has to compete in the market of consumer choices. If you’re just moving people out of buses into trains you’re not achieving much.”
At the Rotary Club luncheon he said, “There has to be a new crossing,” and “That corridor is too vital to allow it to fall into the river, so we have to figure out what the right replacement looks like, what we can afford, when it needs to be done — all of that.”
Given that for some time now, CRC has been the sole entity charged with replacing the I-5 bridges and we have been told light rail will be part of the bridges, “like it or not” and voters have been denied a voice, he appears clueless on the largest issue facing Southwest Washington and has for several months now.
McKenna says “we have to figure out what the right replacement looks like,” apparently unaware the current governors of the two states have already settled in a flawed design that does not even have enough clearance to accommodate river traffic.
McKenna comes across now as a classic “fence straddle” afraid to take a firm position on a matter of importance to Southwest Washington voters.
Surely if he can state a firm position in opposition to the Boy Scouts of America banning homosexuals into their private organization, he can give us a firm position on the CRC/light rail project.
The November general elections will feature only Jay Inslee and Rob McKenna as the survivors of the top two primaries. Washington State has not had a Republican Governor for nearly 3 decades.
If Rob McKenna cannot get his act together and quickly, it will remain that way.
Voters do not vote for weak candidates unable to articulate a position on issues of importance to them and portrayed as wimpish in ads, no matter what party they belong to.
Voters are talking. Are you listening, Rob?
