New emails suggest Olympia Democrats weren’t just passing an income tax — they were carefully engineering a legal strategy around a court they viewed as politically favorable.

Democrats’ Millionaire Tax Scheme Looks More Political by the Day

New reporting from Center Square exposes more emails showing officials in the Washington Attorney General’s Office describing the state Supreme Court as “as favorable a venue as we’re likely to get” while defending Democrats’ new millionaire’s tax and fighting efforts to let voters challenge it through a referendum.
The emails also reveal AGO staff discussing whether justices might “punt” the issue to voters to avoid directly ruling on the constitutionality of the tax themselves — an extraordinary behind-the-scenes glimpse into how political this entire process has become.
Of course, the documents reinforce what conservatives have warned for months: this was never just about raising revenue. Democrats openly crafted the tax to provoke a legal challenge and pressure the court into overturning nearly a century of precedent holding that income is property under Washington’s Constitution.
That precedent dates back to the 1933 Culliton decision and has been reaffirmed repeatedly over the decades. But emails previously uncovered by The Center Square showed Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen and AGO officials working closely on a bill specifically designed to challenge those rulings.
Even the bill’s emergency clause — conveniently used to block voters from filing a referendum — was reportedly added after a recommendation from Solicitor General Noah Purcell. Because apparently Democrats trust the courts more than they trust Washington voters. Read more at Center Square ([link removed]).

Democrats’ Redistricting Gamble May Be Falling Apart

A federal judge is now weighing whether to throw out Washington’s controversial redrawn legislative maps just two years after approving them — a move state officials warn could throw the 2026 election calendar into chaos.
The maps were originally redrawn by U.S. District Court Judge Robert Lasnik to boost Latino voting power in the Yakima Valley, shifting more than 300,000 people across 13 legislative districts. But challengers now argue the maps no longer hold up after the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Louisiana v. Callais ruling, which significantly limited the use of race in drawing political boundaries.
Republicans and other challengers say the state should return to the bipartisan redistricting commission’s original 2021 maps, arguing the current lines were drawn with race prioritized over traditional standards like compactness and communities of interest.
Meanwhile, Democrats and state officials are suddenly warning that changing the maps now would create “chaos,” confuse voters, and possibly even delay the August primary. Funny how Olympia only discovers concerns about election stability after courts begin questioning maps they liked politically.
The case could ultimately head back to the U.S. Supreme Court, making the upcoming Washington Supreme Court races even more important as legal fights over redistricting, election law, and Democrats’ broader political agenda continue piling up. Read more at the Washington State Standard ([link removed]).

“Progressive” Crime Plan Is Working Exactly as Expected

Seattle’s violent crime crisis keeps spiraling while Democrat leaders continue pretending their policies had nothing to do with it. In just recent days, the city saw the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl by a suspect with nine active warrants, brutal assaults on elderly victims, and the stabbing death of a UW student.
Seattle Police Officers Guild President Kent Loux says officers are still making arrests — but King County Jail frequently refuses bookings for suspects deemed in a “heightened state” or for minor medical complaints, forcing officers to babysit criminals in ERs for hours instead of policing the city.
The city now has only about 850 deployable officers when it realistically needs closer to 1,500. Yet after years of “defund the police” rhetoric, Seattle politicians are still threatening public safety cuts while repeat offenders cycle through a revolving-door justice system with little fear of consequences.
Turns out turning Seattle into a sanctuary city for criminals wasn’t the brilliant progressive experiment Democrats promised after all. Read more at Seattle Red ([link removed]).

Olympia’s “Transparency” Disappears When Taxpayer Money Is Involved

The Washington Department of Commerce abruptly reversed course this week and released the full list of daycare providers receiving $57.8 million in taxpayer-funded grants after mounting pressure over its bizarre secrecy campaign.
Initially, more than 70 grant recipients were partially hidden from the public, with some providers listed only as “family home facility” and a city name — no business names, no addresses, nothing. Apparently, Olympia thought taxpayers should just blindly trust where tens of millions were going.
State agencies tried justifying the secrecy by citing a law originally passed to protect seniors and vulnerable people from identity theft. Yes, really. Democrats somehow stretched a law meant to shield elderly victims into an excuse for concealing the identities of businesses accepting taxpayer cash.
GOP State Sen. Leonard Christian called out the absurdity, pointing out that businesses applying for public grants should not be “unlisted.” After media scrutiny and public backlash, Commerce suddenly received “new guidance” from the Attorney General’s Office and quickly released the names after all. Funny how transparency becomes possible the moment people start asking questions.
The updated list now includes providers like Aventuras Daycare, Jardin De Ninos LLC, and Acevedo Daycare in Yakima — information taxpayers probably should have been allowed to see from the beginning. Read more at Center Square ([link removed]).

Seattle Teachers Union Picks Leader Under Child Abuse Investigation

The Seattle Education Association just elected a new president who has been on paid administrative leave since December while under investigation for allegedly physically abusing a special-needs student. And despite the active police referral and disturbing allegations, the union certified her victory anyway.
Ibijoke Idowu, a special education teacher at Rising Star Elementary, won the race by a comfortable margin and will now lead a union representing roughly 6,000 Seattle Public Schools employees.
According to complaints detailed by The Seattle Times, the allegations involve a third-grade student with autism and speech delays whose family noticed bruising allegedly consistent with adult fingerprints. A behavioral therapist also reportedly told investigators she witnessed Idowu throw a marker at the child’s head and said multiple students were afraid of her. Seattle Police later referred the case to prosecutors.
Seattle Public Schools placed Idowu on paid leave in December, but the union’s response boiled down to: everyone deserves due process. Technically true. But most organizations probably wouldn’t hand the top leadership job to someone at the center of an active child abuse investigation involving a vulnerable student.
The SEA defended the outcome by noting that any dues-paying member in “good standing” can run for president. Apparently, being under investigation for alleged abuse of a special-needs child does not affect one’s standing in Seattle’s education establishment. Read more at Seattle Red ([link removed]).

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