At a press conference outside the Bellevue Transit Center this afternoon, gubernatorial candidate and US Congressman Jay Inslee (D-1) trashed his Republican opponent, attorney general Rob McKenna, for comments he made at an Eastside event earlier this week about Sound Transit. As PubliCola first reported yesterday, McKenna told the anti-transit Eastside Transportation Association that he was "not sure" how light rail would work between Seattle and the Eastside (and suggested that it would have to be shut down in bad weather) and said that the only way to stop light rail would be another public vote.

Inslee, flanked by King County Executive Dow Constantine and Bellevue City Council member Claudia Balducci and squinting into the midafternoon sun, said McKenna needed to "get over" the light-rail argument. "This thing has gone through multiple, multiple analyses. ... We've made this decision multiple times. ... My opponent has lost. He needs to get over it so that our community can move on. It does't matter why he's wrong, he's wrong."

Yesterday, McKenna's spokesman told PubliCola that he acknowledged the voters' preference for light rail, even if he personally remained a "deep, deep skeptic" of the project. (As a Sound Transit board member, McKenna actively worked against the project). Asked specifically what McKenna could do, as governor, to stymie light rail, Inslee said the state needs a governor who "will work with the state Department of Transportation" to make sure rail ties in with the road system, with parking, with bike facilities, and with other transit---and that McKenna  might stand in the way of all that.

We have a call out to McKenna's campaign to find out if he plans to work with WSDOT to implement light rail (along the lines of Mayor Mike McGinn's "I will not stand in the way of the tunnel" stance) or if he will take actions to obstruct the project.