Dems Say Re-Open Plan “disastrous disconnect with the realities of our communities”
A trio of 13th District State GOP legislators (Moses Lake-Grant County) are blasting Gov. Inslee's Healthy Washington Re-Open plan; saying it smacks of partisan politics. The 13th legislators are pictured above.
But aside from these GOP legislators and the rest of the Republicans, now a number of Democrats are joining in.
Gov. Inslee announced last week that February 1st the Puget Sound Region (Snohomish, Pierce and King Counties) and the West Region (Thurston, Grays Harbor, Pacific and Lewis Counties) would move to Phase 2.
While it's not huge, there are significant business and economic relaxations between Phase 1 and 2. State Sen. Judy Warnick, Rep. Tom Dent and Rep. Alex Ybarra who respresent the 13th Legislative District (Grant County and Moses Lake included) have been pushing back since last year over the Phased approach. They are all Republicans.
Rep. Ybarra (Quincy) says “The plan unfortunately looks a bit like partisan politics.”
These and other legislators, including those rural Democrats, say there are regions that are more 'worthy' of Phase 2 than the Puget Sound Region. The reason the West Region advancement is controversial is because Thurston County includes Olympia and is considered the political and judicial 'center' of the state. Some regions, including the North Central, and ours, the South Central, have some better COVID numbers than Puget Sound.
Ybarra, Dent and Warnick's district is in the North Central Region. This includes Okanogan, Douglas, Chelan, and to the south, Grant County.
According to the trio, in their news release:
"One democratic lawmaker said, “…it is clear that the governor’s plan exhibits a disastrous disconnect with the realities of our communities.”