Jolt
Afternoon Jolt #2: Inslee Wins Election, is Still a Loser
Today's Loser: Rep. Jay Inslee
No one was expecting popular Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA, 1) to be taken down by the likes of his Republican opponent James Watkins last night. But that doesn't necessarily put Inslee in the winner's circle, because Inslee's signature agenda item—finding a legislative answer to the problem of lowering carbon emissions in the United States—just got way harder.
The Democrats' old standby of cap and trade is dead now, despite the complicated emissions permit scheme devised and passed in the House last year that would have lowered carbon dioxide levels here within the limits promised by President Obama at the Copenhagen summit last December. Inslee was instrumental in writing that bill, we reported at the time. However, even as cap and trade died, conservative leaders indicated they were warming up to the idea of investing in green infrastructure and technology.
Now, with U.S. Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) as the probable next Speaker of the House, it's going to be difficult to get anything substantive on the environment passed out of Congress's lower chamber. Inslee's office says the work of the next couple years is going to involve a lot of bipartisan conciliation, and that the time Inslee spent last year brokering environmental amendments with concerned Republicans has prepared him for the task. "We've got to find a way moving forward to find the Republicans who were with us before, and to have their colleagues to be on board," Inslee's spokesman Robert Kellar told PubliCola. "We'll also have new Republican members—lots of opportunities for conversion."
But Boehner, who has scoffed at the science of global climate change in the past, is surely going to get in the way of those plans. He and Inslee aren't exactly best pals. For example, back in 2006, right before the Democrats were poised to take over the house, Josh asked Inslee what he thought about Boehner's response to Democratic opposition to the Patriot Act. Inslee called Boehner "the majority leader who let a child predator run amok in Congress," referring to Florida Republican ex-Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned in 2006 after he sent sexually explicit messages to Congressional pages. Not exactly the picture of a friendly working relationship.
Today's Winner: Stand For Children
Of course, the zealous ed reform group are declaring themselves winners today, too—ten out of the 14 candidates they supported this year are winning. Another SFC candidate, Steve Hobbs, is too close to call. (The losers in the bunch are 34th district Rep. candidate Mike Heavey, 6th district Rep. candidate John Driscoll, and 17th district Rep. candidate Monica Stonier, all Democrats.
The too-close-to-call ed reformer is Sen. Steve Hobbs (D-44). He's basically tied with his Republican opponent Dave Schmidt—they're tied by two votes.
This is the group's first big year getting involved in races—they've spent $244,000 on candidates this year, plus $78,330 in independent expenditures, versus $20,000 and no independent expenditures in 2008—and ten winning candidates is a pretty good score.
We also think it's good that their slate of candidates are bipartisan—seven Republicans, 21 Democrats—meaning that Rs and Ds will have a least a bit of common ground when the new legislative session, with new Republican reinforcements, begins in January.
No one was expecting popular Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA, 1) to be taken down by the likes of his Republican opponent James Watkins last night. But that doesn't necessarily put Inslee in the winner's circle, because Inslee's signature agenda item—finding a legislative answer to the problem of lowering carbon emissions in the United States—just got way harder.
The Democrats' old standby of cap and trade is dead now, despite the complicated emissions permit scheme devised and passed in the House last year that would have lowered carbon dioxide levels here within the limits promised by President Obama at the Copenhagen summit last December. Inslee was instrumental in writing that bill, we reported at the time. However, even as cap and trade died, conservative leaders indicated they were warming up to the idea of investing in green infrastructure and technology.
Now, with U.S. Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) as the probable next Speaker of the House, it's going to be difficult to get anything substantive on the environment passed out of Congress's lower chamber. Inslee's office says the work of the next couple years is going to involve a lot of bipartisan conciliation, and that the time Inslee spent last year brokering environmental amendments with concerned Republicans has prepared him for the task. "We've got to find a way moving forward to find the Republicans who were with us before, and to have their colleagues to be on board," Inslee's spokesman Robert Kellar told PubliCola. "We'll also have new Republican members—lots of opportunities for conversion."
But Boehner, who has scoffed at the science of global climate change in the past, is surely going to get in the way of those plans. He and Inslee aren't exactly best pals. For example, back in 2006, right before the Democrats were poised to take over the house, Josh asked Inslee what he thought about Boehner's response to Democratic opposition to the Patriot Act. Inslee called Boehner "the majority leader who let a child predator run amok in Congress," referring to Florida Republican ex-Rep. Mark Foley, who resigned in 2006 after he sent sexually explicit messages to Congressional pages. Not exactly the picture of a friendly working relationship.
Today's Winner: Stand For Children
Of course, the zealous ed reform group are declaring themselves winners today, too—ten out of the 14 candidates they supported this year are winning. Another SFC candidate, Steve Hobbs, is too close to call. (The losers in the bunch are 34th district Rep. candidate Mike Heavey, 6th district Rep. candidate John Driscoll, and 17th district Rep. candidate Monica Stonier, all Democrats.
The too-close-to-call ed reformer is Sen. Steve Hobbs (D-44). He's basically tied with his Republican opponent Dave Schmidt—they're tied by two votes.
This is the group's first big year getting involved in races—they've spent $244,000 on candidates this year, plus $78,330 in independent expenditures, versus $20,000 and no independent expenditures in 2008—and ten winning candidates is a pretty good score.
We also think it's good that their slate of candidates are bipartisan—seven Republicans, 21 Democrats—meaning that Rs and Ds will have a least a bit of common ground when the new legislative session, with new Republican reinforcements, begins in January.
