This Washington
Seattle Times: Inslee to Resign from Congress, Focus on Gov's Race
The Seattle Times has the scoop
: US Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA, 1) will resign his congressional seat effective March 20 to focus full time on his run for governor. Jay Inslee spokeswoman Jaime Smith confirms for PubliCola that Inslee will announce his resignation at 1 pm.
Inslee has represented the 1st Congressional District ( Seattle's northern suburbs into Snohomish and west into Kitsap) since being elected in 1998. (Inslee was also congressman from central Washington's 4th Congressional District for one term—in 1993 and 1994—before being turned out in the '94's Gingrich revolution.)
Inslee has lagged in the polls since the summer to his Republican rival Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna, though a couple of new Democratic polls show a neck-and-neck race and Inslee is ahead in fundraising, he has $2.7 million cash on hand (having raised $4.2 million) while McKenna has $2.1 million on hand (having raised $3.7 million).
Those fundraising numbers come with a couple of asterisks, though: 1) AG McKenna has been barred from raising money for the past three months while the state legislature is in session; 2) Nearly half-a-million of Inlsee's total take has come from the state Democratic Party while McKenna has not relied on any cash infusions from the state GOP.
Inslee's resignation will not trigger a special election. His seat will remain vacant and the race that's already underway to replace him which began when he announced he was running for governor last year will continue until November. That race features six Democratic rivals (Darcy Burner, Suzan DelBene, state Rep. Roger Goodman, state Sen. Steve Hobbs, Laura Ruderman, and Darshan Rauniyar) and Republican Snohomish County Council member John Koster.
DC politics site Politico says Inslee's move is a "tacit acknowledgement that the Inslee campaign is not where Democrats would like it to be." They add: "Democrats have argued that McKenna's lead is based on name identification and that Inslee's numbers would improve once more people got to know him. But a Public Policy Polling survey taken in mid-February indicated that the number of voters who haven't formed an opinion on Inslee or McKenna are relatively the same."
Inslee has represented the 1st Congressional District ( Seattle's northern suburbs into Snohomish and west into Kitsap) since being elected in 1998. (Inslee was also congressman from central Washington's 4th Congressional District for one term—in 1993 and 1994—before being turned out in the '94's Gingrich revolution.)
Inslee has lagged in the polls since the summer to his Republican rival Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna, though a couple of new Democratic polls show a neck-and-neck race and Inslee is ahead in fundraising, he has $2.7 million cash on hand (having raised $4.2 million) while McKenna has $2.1 million on hand (having raised $3.7 million).
Those fundraising numbers come with a couple of asterisks, though: 1) AG McKenna has been barred from raising money for the past three months while the state legislature is in session; 2) Nearly half-a-million of Inlsee's total take has come from the state Democratic Party while McKenna has not relied on any cash infusions from the state GOP.
Inslee's resignation will not trigger a special election. His seat will remain vacant and the race that's already underway to replace him which began when he announced he was running for governor last year will continue until November. That race features six Democratic rivals (Darcy Burner, Suzan DelBene, state Rep. Roger Goodman, state Sen. Steve Hobbs, Laura Ruderman, and Darshan Rauniyar) and Republican Snohomish County Council member John Koster.
DC politics site Politico says Inslee's move is a "tacit acknowledgement that the Inslee campaign is not where Democrats would like it to be." They add: "Democrats have argued that McKenna's lead is based on name identification and that Inslee's numbers would improve once more people got to know him. But a Public Policy Polling survey taken in mid-February indicated that the number of voters who haven't formed an opinion on Inslee or McKenna are relatively the same."
