OLYMPIA, Wash. — The pandemic took top billing in a gubernatorial debate last night in Olympia.
Debate organizers cited distancing considerations in keeping the candidates in separate rooms for the face-off, which you heard on KGMI.
Incumbent democratic governor Jay Inslee is looking for a third term and defending his administration’s activist approach in fighting the pandemic, saying he feels very strongly that we have to stand up and face this and “beat this virus into the ground.”
His challenger, Republican Loren Culp, is the police chief of Republic and said there is a leadership crisis in the state, noting that Inslee just took a big pay raise and said he couldn’t control that, yet he can issue executive orders to “affect your pay, and your job, and your business but apparently he can’t issue an executive order to stop his own pay raise.”
Ballots will be sent to the state’s 4.6 million voters next week, and elections officials are expecting record turnout for the November 3rd election.