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The year started with such great hopes. After all, 2020 was so bad, its replacement had to be better, right?
It was better in some respects but worse in others, which is pretty much how years go. But looking back with the perspective of 51 weeks gone, here’s Spin Control’s list of some highs and lows of 2021:
Politician most likely to be missed: Kim Wyman. The longtime and now former secretary of state held up to pressure and even threats from members of her own party who somehow thought Washington’s 2020 election was rigged to cheat Donald Trump and would-be governor Loren Culp out of hundreds of thousands of votes; calmly explained why the circus in Arizona was not a forensic audit and was not needed here; and was Washington’s only statewide elected Republican. In October, she took a job with the Biden administration to help make the nation’s elections more secure.
Most calculated political maneuver: Wyman’s departure less than a year into her latest term meant Gov. Jay Inslee got to name a replacement. Unlike local appointments to empty seats, the party of the exiting official does not get to nominate the list of possible replacements. Free to choose anyone, Inslee didn’t just go with a fellow Democrat. He chose state Sen. Steve Hobbs, removing from the Senate Transportation Committee of one of the caucus’s more moderate members and one who has been a roadblock to some of Inslee’s proposals to deal with climate change.
Biggest flip-flop: Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who arguably committed a flip-flop-flip on the question of who won last year’s presidential election. She signed on to a U.S. Supreme Court motion challenging the results from four states and announced she would vote against House certification of the results to “amplify the voices of millions” who didn’t trust the process. When some of the people connected to those voices stormed the Capitol, the nine-term congresswoman flipped and voted to certify. When the House voted to impeach Trump for his part in inciting the riot, she flipped back and was the only House member from Washington to vote no.
Least ambidextrous maneuver: Gov. Inslee signed two bills at the same time, one with his right hand and one with his left. To be fair, the problem started with the Legislature, which liked two bills on expanding broadband so much that it passed both. Because state law says the most recent law takes precedence, signing both at the same time raised questions. That left it to Wyman to determine which was newer. One had been signed in both the Senate and House on April 24, but the other had been signed in the House on April 24 and the Senate in April 25, so it was the newer and thus controlling statute.
Most overdue legislation needed: How long is an emergency? When COVID-19 began to take hold in 2020 just after the Legislature had left town, Inslee declared an emergency to deal with the pandemic. Some 20 months later, some emergency rules remain in effect. That’s not to say that some of those rules aren’t needed, but that the time limits in state law seems designed to address emergencies with shorter durations — like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions or wildfires — than a multiyear pandemic.
Flimsiest strawman: Critical race theory. Originally posited as a way for legal scholars and lawyers to look at the effects of systemic racism in American society, it became a catchword for some people to describe anything they don’t like about depictions of racism or equity in history, literature or social studies. Efforts to ban critical race theory in Washington public schools seem to ignore the fact that it’s not something the schools teach.
Worst new trend: Face-mask litter. Whether one supports or opposes requirements to wear a face mask in certain public venues, can’t we all get agreement that it’s bad form, as well as unsightly and unsanitary, to toss the used mask onto the sidewalk, parking lot or street once you’ve removed it?
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