Gov. Inslee Wins Another Term Due to King, Snohomish, Pierce Counties

If you looked at the breakdown of most average states, and saw an incumbent governor only won 10 of 39 counties, you'd probably think they lost. But not in Washington state. (The pink shaded counties went to challenger Bill Bryant).

In yet another example of the growing political rift between the East and West Side (and even some rural West side areas) Gov. Jay Inslee saw over 640,000 of his 1.124-plus million votes come from King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties.

GOP Challenger Bill Bryant was viewed as many as a strong challenger, the best chance since Dino Rossi, to unseat a Democratic governor in Olympia. But despite sweeping all but one county East of the Cascades, and winning 29, he lost by a margin of about 12-13 percent.

Inslee's approval ratings were in the low 40's the lowest of any incumbent WA governor in over three decades. But the strong support in the Big Three counties has kept him in office for another four years.

Inslee touted his enviornmental record as the reason for winning, it's actually true, as he has been largely funded by Californian environmental extremist and venture capitalist Tom Steyer and other such groups. His political agenda reflects his 'requirement' to push green policies ahead of economic development as 'payback' for the support.

However, the next four years are likely to be another round of his policies being thwarted by The Coalition, the group of 25 GOP and 1 Democratic Senator in the legislature who have shot down many of his extreme ideas, including gas tax hikes over $1.00 per gallon.