In a move that many conservative analysts interpret as politically timed for the Nov. 8 election, Nov. 1 is the first day in 976 days that Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee doesn’t have vast and self-proclaimed emergency governing powers.
Inslee declared a statewide emergency on Feb. 29, 2020 in response to the Covid pandemic, which was an emerging crisis that started in China, moved to Washington state and other states, and ultimately spread across the country.
The emergency declaration gave Inslee nearly absolute power, and he issued dozens of additional proclamations, including mask mandates, vaccine mandates, various moratoriums, and shelter-in-place orders.
In October, Inslee announced Oct. 31 would be the last of day of his emergency declaration.
The statewide Face Covering Order issued by the state Washington Department of Health remains in place for health-care and long-term care settings and correctional facilities under certain circumstances after the state of emergency ended.
The progressive governor, who has had numerous state employees fired for not getting the Covid vaccine, is also looking at options to ensure there are protections for workers who choose to wear a mask in their workplace. Some of the more liberal counties in Washington are keeping their emergency powers.
The “final number” of Washington State Patrol workers fired for vaccine refusal was 127 in October of 2021 — nearly 6% of the entire agency.
Washington’s Covid vaccination requirements for health care and education workers ended Oct. 31. Employers may, however, require vaccinations as a condition of employment and Inslee has already announced that Covid vaccinations are still a condition of employment for most state agencies.
The end of the governor’s emergency comes after Inslee had essentially one-man rule for 975 days, said Centralia State Senate Republican leader John Braun, R-Centralia, who serves in the minority party.
Inslee bragged that Washington has one of the lowest Covid death rates in the nation, and said that other states should have created the mandates he ordered, which he said would have saved lives nationally.
In fact, Alaska, under Gov. Mike Dunleavy, had a lower death rate than Washington. And Mississippi, which had the highest death rate, has some of the highest rates of health factors that made the residents vulnerable to Covid. Those include obesity, hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, renal diseases, lung diseases, and compromised immune systems.
Washington, on the other hand, has the eighth youngest population in America. The youngest states are Utah, Alaska, Texas, Georgia, Colorado, California, North Dakota, and then Washington.
All kinds of factors lead to who succumbs to the Covid virus, but age and co-morbidities are known contributors to how people are impacted by the virus.
“Ending the state of emergency is long overdue,” Braun said in a published statement. “With this finally behind us, I hope the majority party will be willing to discuss legitimate bipartisan reform of the governor’s emergency powers.”
The end of Inslee’s emergency powers comes exactly one week before midterm elections. Inslee, a hardline Democrat, is not up for reelection this year, but several key races are polling within the margin of error between Democrat and Republican candidates, and it appears Inslee is working to improve his party’s odds of remaining firmly in power in Washington.
Wow. What a coincidence!
Suzanne thank you for the mike shower article. Called him at work to thank him for his guts of for and by the people. Let him know you exposed his integrity and leadership to us Alaskans. Thank you Suzanne hope is awesome ma’am.
It is important to note that he is not ending the mandates for most state workers. This tyranny must stop. It is of no logical reason that some people are allowed to work without vaccines and others are not. Purely political.
This reminds me of something…. something…. can’t think of it… hang on…
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Just like the Assembly and ADQ ending the emergency order during the run off Mayoral election. Weird how timing like this seems to happen all over.
It’s widely known in WA state that Inslee is one dumb sob. But he’s a radical Lefty, which works for Seattle and Olympia.
Yes Inslee is a total flake, the only reason he ever got voted in is because 1 or 2 Counties state wide have all the liberal progressives and in combination with a suspected corrupted voting system in the most populous King County, the State routinely votes Republican in all but a handful of Counties , but Washington State is Flooded with a few Questionable and Fraudulent areas that obviously have shananigans going on in every election Be careful, Alaska , these crooks will be headed your direction , they have been in Washington for decades now!
True statement above. Democrat Christine Gregoire won the governorship in 2006 after THREE recounts ……..by 100 votes, which were found behind a piano. They got counted. Democrats are not to be trusted ………ever.
So much skullduggery surrounding Inslee’s governorship.
Headlines from friends in WA State:
Culp campaign claims Secretary of State Kim Wyman allowed 900,000 to vote in state illegally [causing Inslee to “win”]
At the time of closing, polls showed Culp ahead of Inslee, yet race was called for Inslee
Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman resigns to join Biden administration
WA Gov. Jay Inslee personally begged CCP dictator Xi Jinping for coronavirus help in April
WA State as no gubernatorial term limits.
Having been born and raised in Washington, and some family still lives there, Eastern Washington (basically divided by the Cascades) are very firm/hard conservatives. I speak conservative not Dem or Rep. As one should know, that’s where all/most our farmers that supply most of our food/fruit and other food live..Hard working farmers and hard working people. Yes, in some spots, it’s “bluer”..
The Covidian mass hysteria, and the grossly authoritarian, anti-human, anti-freedom mandates that sprang from it, very clearly separated the sheep from those with a brain and even a smidgen of independent and critical thinking. But sadly, it also proved that there are more of the former than of the latter.
Unfortunately, many of us have to fly thru Seattle on AK Air. If possible, I try to avoid either Seattle or Portland … Both waste-lands.
Amazing! I grew up in Olympia and have fond memories of the place. People were very independent then and did not allow politics to get in their way. We were fascinated by the state politics, however, and my parents were very active. Dad was a democrat committeeman who also ran the campaign of then State Treasurer Tom Martin for State Governor, while Mom was the Republican committeewoman. They used to laugh that they canceled out each other’s votes. But it never affected their marriage. They had great respect for each other. Too bad we don’t have the same attitudes now.
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