Campaign 2020: Inslee, Culp spar over COVID-19, protests

Gubernatorial debate

By Jim Camden

The Spokesman-Review

Gov. Jay Inslee accused his Republican opponent of being a “mini Trump” and challenger Loren Culp accused the incumbent of being a career politician “who has no clue what it’s like in the real world” during a spirited debate Wednesday night.

They clashed on the best way to handle the COVID-19 pandemic, civil unrest and whether the state is good for business. As they traded barbs, they sometimes seemed to be running to lead two different states.

Culp was asked whether he takes the pandemic seriously enough as he holds rallies around the state with hundreds of people who don’t wear masks or practice social distancing.

“I’ve never come out and spoken against wearing masks,” he said. Instead he’s spoken against a government order for businesses and individuals to wear masks, he added.

“I firmly believe in individual freedom and liberty,” he said.

Inslee said that part of leadership is modeling proper behavior and safety protocols. The series of steps he took since March, which included a Stay Home Stay Safe order in March and phased reopening of counties that started in the summer but has since paused, is saving lives because most people are following the guidelines, he added.

“This is working. They are wearing masks; they are social distancing,” he said.

Inslee also contended that Republicans, President Donald Trump and Culp want to take away health care some 800,000 state residents receive through expanded Medicaid.

“It’s too dangerous to have a mini Trump right now in the middle of a pandemic,” Inslee said, in one of several attempts to link his opponent to the president.

It was the first, and so far only. scheduled meeting between the two. Inslee, who is seeking his third straight term, easily topped the Aug. 4 primary field. Culp, the chief of the Republic Police Department and first-time candidate, finished ahead of four other serious GOP rivals in a field of 35 challengers that included a mixture of minor party and perennial candidates. The journalists asking questions were in one room, and the candidates were in other, separate rooms.

Culp may have scored points with viewers when talking about the state’s response to protests that turned violent after incidents of Black citizens killed by police officers elsewhere in the country. He charged Inslee was “oblivious” after a group of protesters seized a small section of Seattle to form the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone earlier this year

“I could not have been oblivious,” Inslee replied, adding he sent in the National Guard.

One of the moderators noted, however, that Inslee did say at a press conference a day after the area was seized that he didn’t know about it.

“If I made a misstatement, I made a misstatement,” he said.

Culp also criticized Inslee for sending the Guard in without weapons, adding as governor he would never send them to such a situation unarmed. Inslee countered that the elected officials who requested the Guard had asked that they not be armed, and the adjutant general agreed that more firearms on the streets was not the answer.

Culp said the state was a bad place to do business and that he would cut costly regulations to turn that around and create more jobs. Inslee said the state is rated by some groups as the best place to do business with strong help for workers and families.