Bet you didn’t see this coming: The Kitsap Sun didn’t endorse Jay Inslee.
In a surprise move, the Sun’s editorial board chose his Republican challenger, a candidate that most polls say doesn’t have a chance against Bainbridge’s six-term congressman.
Inslee has been the Sun’s favorite in years past, but business know-how and fiscal restraint – keynotes of the James Watkins campaign – swayed the editorial board this year.
“Watkins has four years of experience under two administrations in helping to cut spending at the FDIC, served as a director at Microsoft, managed successful small businesses, and has been a consultant working with small businesses across the nation. He’s a fiscal conservative, opposes deficit spending, and says a key to economic recovery is policies that will allow small businesses to grow in a supportive environment that’s stable in terms of taxes and regulatory measures,” the editorial board writes.
Plus, Inslee is no Norm Dicks or Patty Murray (both endorsed by the Sun) when it comes to bringing the federal bacon to Kitsap, according to the board.
To read the full endorsement, click HERE. Scroll down past the bits about Dicks and Murray to get to the Inslee vs. Watkins part at the bottom.
I have been following Local politics since the early 90’s. This has been by far the most diverse number of endorsements by this paper since then. I usually look at candidates by a bigger government or smaller goverment perspective . I do not perhaps understand why the Sun has endorsed those of opposite fields, but it is refreshing. Glad that this is no longer an automatic gimme for one political party.
The choice of Watkins over Inslee wasn’t the only surprising decision by the Sun’s advisory board. Democracy in action! Let’s see how much weight that endorsement carries, and how Watkins does in the final vote tally. I interpret the endorsement as a protest vote, making some people feel good for a change, but short on leverage.
How many members of the advisory board attended the match-up of Inslee and Watkins at the American Legion Hall on Bainbridge? Inslee gave a very convincing account of himself as an adept and dedicated member of the House of Representatives. He didn’t boast about how much bacon he had brought home to his district, but I didn’t hear Watkins promise that he would bring home more. The campaign in Inslee’s district isn’t about pork, it’s about stature, and Watkins — never mind the rude attempts of his supporters to belittle Inslee — doesn’t have what it takes.
Jon — did you see the debate at the American Legion — the event Review Editor claims Inslee tender sensibilities were hurt by “off-island” troublemakers? Inslee clearly lost that debate.
As to the weight of the Sun endorsement, that isn’t really the metric to look at. Look at Inslee’s record and his performance for the deciding factors.
Watkins has run a very excellent campaign and the last debate was just one indication. I hope Inslee still gets the hope and change thing — he’ll need it.
Why do you think Inslee lied about his being back in DC for the Bud Hawk dedication when in fact he was in Seattle? I thought Inslee was going to bolt for the door. Fortunately for Watkins he brought a competent camera crew. Inslee’s film crew (Selina of BITV) couldn’t get her cameras to work.
Mick, I had the opportunity to know and interact with a whole slew of candidates from both parties at the very beginning of their campaigns because I was a board member of a local group whose support they were attempting to garner. I got to see them and their more honest actions for what they were before the “campaign mask” slipped into place and the subsequent “snow job” of the voters began because they started basing their actions, statements, decisions and rhetoric on “winning” instead on who they really were and what their honest positions, messages and opinions really were.
A couple (not all) of these less than honest individuals are Republican candidates challenging incumbents and are now endorsed by the Sun Editorial Board. I suspect that they are being endorsed, because it has been recognized that they are simple party and special interest puppets that will move the way the wind (or the money) blows on populist issues and that they are easy push over’s when it comes to buying in to the rampant lucrative and unique career and personal power advancement opportunities that politics provides. These less than substantive individuals will not provide any sort of roadblock, diversion or challenge to the group of elected officials that the Sun Editorial Board really supports and wants in power for our community.