Inslee, McKenna trade jabs in feisty final debate

SEATTLE — Democrat Jay Inslee and Republican Rob McKenna clashed on school funding, women’s health care and their plan for creating jobs Tuesday in a feisty final debate before voting begins in one of the nation’s most closely watched contests for governor.

With ballots going in the mail this week, the two men jabbed throughout the hourlong match-up as they worked to paint themselves as better able to bring a fresh perspective to the state’s chief executive office.

McKenna, who is trying to become the state’s first Republican governor since the 1980s, said in closing the endorsements he’s received from newspapers and centrist organizations who typically back Democrats signals a desire for a new direction.

“Do you think that you’ll be better off four years from now if we put the same people back in charge of Olympia that have been running it for 28 years?” he said looking into the camera.

Inslee, 61, a former congressman and state lawmaker, contended he will do a better job shaking up the establishment.

“Olympia needs a whole new culture of how we do business in state government and it needs a disruptive force to bring those changes,” Inslee said. “I intend to be that disruptive force.”

Tuesday marked the fifth debate and throughout McKenna, 50, was the aggressor and seemed intent on trying to provoke Inslee. He poked at his rival’s answers and more than once called him uninformed on the issues.

One tense exchange centered on an education funding proposal for school districts to collect $2 billion less in local levies and replace the money with statewide property tax dollars.

Inslee opposed the idea which he said won’t generate any additional dollars for schools while hiking property taxes for thousands of property owners. He said he will find more money for education by trimming wasteful spending, lowering health care costs and generating revenue from a revived economy.

“A plan that raises taxes on people who live in 47 percent of the school districts while not generating one single dollar for schools is not a route forward,” Inslee said.

McKenna embraces the concept drawn up by Republican and Democratic lawmakers and scoffed at his rival for not understanding it or offering an alternative.

“Congressman Inslee has no plan. He has no idea where he will get the $2 billion,” he said.

Inslee pressed on, re-asserting it will raise taxes and directed viewers to a website for details at which point McKenna interrupted. “That’s a terribly reliable source,” he said.

Asked how they would eradicate fraud from the state ferry system system, McKenna vowed to bring in new people to run it and said he would fire David Mosely, the assistant secretary of transportation in charge of Washington State Ferries.

Inslee, as he did often Tuesday, said he’d hire outsiders as well to implement “lean” management techniques aimed at improving the efficiency of the operation.

McKenna and Inslee once again pushed their differing approaches to creating jobs.

McKenna said his plan centers on lowering costs of unemployment insurance and workers compensation, reducing regulations and revamping the business and occupation tax.

Inslee said he’ll push 75 separate proposals to incite job creation and work to make Washington a leader in clean energy and other new technologies.

One testy moment came when the candidates questioned each other.

McKenna asked Inslee why he had not received endorsements from any of the state’s major daily newspapers.

“They are thoughtful people, you’ll have to ask them,” he said. “I don’t work for the newspapers of the state of Washington. I work for the people of the state of Washington.”

When Inslee got his turn, he tried to push McKenna into a corner by asking what he’s done to safeguard a woman’s right to abortion rights and access to health insurance covering abortion as well as emergency contraception.

“That’s a good question but of course the premise is false because you suggest that I haven’t clearly stated my position. In fact I think I just clearly stated it, let me think, a few days ago at the last time we had a debate,” he said.

McKenna said he would uphold the current laws that protect abortion rights.

Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623; jcornfield@heraldnet.com.

Talk to us

> Give us your news tips.

> Send us a letter to the editor.

> More Herald contact information.

More in Local News

A firefighter stands in silence before a panel bearing the names of L. John Regelbrugge and Kris Regelbrugge during the ten-year remembrance of the Oso landslide on Friday, March 22, 2024, at the Oso Landslide Memorial in Oso, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
‘Flood of emotions’ as Oso Landslide Memorial opens on 10th anniversary

Friends, family and first responders held a moment of silence at 10:37 a.m. at the new 2-acre memorial off Highway 530.

Julie Petersen poses for a photo with images of her sister Christina Jefferds and Jefferds’ grand daughter Sanoah Violet Huestis next to a memorial for Sanoah at her home on March 20, 2024 in Arlington, Washington. Peterson wears her sister’s favorite color and one of her bangles. (Annie Barker / The Herald)
‘It just all came down’: An oral history of the Oso mudslide

Ten years later, The Daily Herald spoke with dozens of people — first responders, family, survivors — touched by the deadliest slide in U.S. history.

Victims of the Oso mudslide on March 22, 2014. (Courtesy photos)
Remembering the 43 lives lost in the Oso mudslide

The slide wiped out a neighborhood along Highway 530 in 2014. “Even though you feel like you’re alone in your grief, you’re really not.”

Director Lucia Schmit, right, and Deputy Director Dara Salmon inside the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management on Friday, March 8, 2024, in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
How Oso slide changed local emergency response ‘on virtually every level’

“In a decade, we have just really, really advanced,” through hard-earned lessons applied to the pandemic, floods and opioids.

Ron and Gail Thompson at their home on Monday, March 4, 2024 in Oso, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
In shadow of scarred Oso hillside, mudslide’s wounds still feel fresh

Locals reflected on living with grief and finding meaning in the wake of a catastrophe “nothing like you can ever imagine” in 2014.

Rep. Suzan DelBene, left, introduces Xichitl Torres Small, center, Undersecretary for Rural Development with the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a talk at Thomas Family Farms on Monday, April 3, 2023, in Snohomish, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Under new federal program, Washingtonians can file taxes for free

At a press conference Wednesday, U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene called the Direct File program safe, easy and secure.

Former Snohomish County sheriff’s deputy Jeremie Zeller appears in court for sentencing on multiple counts of misdemeanor theft Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Snohomish County Superior Court in Everett, Washington. (Ryan Berry / The Herald)
Ex-sheriff’s deputy sentenced to 1 week of jail time for hardware theft

Jeremie Zeller, 47, stole merchandise from Home Depot in south Everett, where he worked overtime as a security guard.

Everett
11 months later, Lake Stevens man charged in fatal Casino Road shooting

Malik Fulson is accused of shooting Joseph Haderlie to death in the parking lot at the Crystal Springs Apartments last April.

T.J. Peters testifies during the murder trial of Alan Dean at the Snohomish County Courthouse on Tuesday, March 26, 2024 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Bothell cold case trial now in jury’s hands

In court this week, the ex-boyfriend of Melissa Lee denied any role in her death. The defendant, Alan Dean, didn’t testify.

A speed camera facing west along 220th Street Southwest on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 in Edmonds, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
New Washington law will allow traffic cams on more city, county roads

The move, led by a Snohomish County Democrat, comes as roadway deaths in the state have hit historic highs.

Mrs. Hildenbrand runs through a spelling exercise with her first grade class on the classroom’s Boxlight interactive display board funded by a pervious tech levy on Tuesday, March 19, 2024 in Marysville, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Lakewood School District’s new levy pitch: This time, it won’t raise taxes

After two levies failed, the district went back to the drawing board, with one levy that would increase taxes and another that would not.

Alex Hanson looks over sections of the Herald and sets the ink on Wednesday, March 30, 2022 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Black Press, publisher of Everett’s Daily Herald, is sold

The new owners include two Canadian private investment firms and a media company based in the southern United States.

Support local journalism

If you value local news, make a gift now to support the trusted journalism you get in The Daily Herald. Donations processed in this system are not tax deductible.