Adele Ferguson: Jay Inslee's extra cash

IN THE LAST WEEK of April, the U.S. House passed a Republican bill, 215-195, to prevent student loan interest rates from doubling on July 1 from the present 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent for the 7.4 million students affected.

By a vote of 178 to 231, members defeated a Democratic motion that sought to prevent health care spending cuts in the student loan bill, HR 4628, from reducing benefits or raising the cost of private medical insurance for women and children.

Also sent to the Senate was a bill, HR 3523, approved 248-168, to expand data sharing between federal agencies in order to bolster our defenses against cybersecurity attacks from terrorists, foreign governments, rogue hacks and overseas business competitors. By a vote of 312-111, members passed a bill peeling out of the new Dodd-Frank financial regulation law a requirement that derivatives transactions by small banks, credit unions and other small financial institutions be done in public, leaving them to be negotiated in private as is presently the case.

Pretty important bills, eh? I found the information in the regular column that runs in many daily newspapers titled How Your U.S. Lawmaker Voted.

There was just one hitch in it.

MY LAWMAKER didn’t vote because I don’t have one at the moment. My lawmaker in the 1st Congressional District of North Kitsap and parts of King and Snohomish Counties, Jay Inslee, resigned his seat on March 20 in order to concentrate on his campaign to become the next governor of this state.

We, his former constituents, are scheduled to vote for a replacement under current district lines and a successor selected under the new redistricting borders. Actually, I’ll believe all this when it happens. He’s been trailing in popularity all along against his chief announced Republican opponent, Attorney General Rob McKenna, although he leads in money. He was going to roll $1 million in his federal campaign account into the gubernatorial stash until advised he couldn’t since he was running for a state office. So he donated it to the state Democratic party which, I am sure, will use it to Inslee’s advantage.

The latest news story about Inslee’s finances won’t do him much good though. Associated Press either got curious or was tipped off to some of his shenanigans concerning what he did with what he had left over the first time he ran for governor in 1996.

According to AP, three months after his campaign ended, Inslee had a surplus of $6,000 in his account which was to be returned to donors. His first refund was $1,000 to himself. He next refunded to his wife $1,100 she had donated and $2,200 he got from his in-laws. Stay with me, this gets better.

AFTER A LITTLE more cash came in from unused media buys, he made some more refunds to his parents, his two brothers and four other supporters, thus depleting the surplus. It must have been a disappointment to run out of relatives who were donors and have to give back outside the blood line.

AP said it reviewed 1,000 pages of campaign finance records to find all this out and none of it was illegal.

The thing that worries me though is if as filing time approaches he realizes he blew a fairly safe congressional seat for a race he isn’t going to win and he decides to return to D.C. instead. I think we’ve had enough of him.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, Wa., 98340.)