Jay Inslee: “I rise in favor of Shays-Meehan and against the substitute. In doing so, I would like to make a freshman observation.…”

“I rise in favor of Shays-Meehan and against the substitute. In doing so, I would like to make a freshman observation. The observation I would like to make is that those of us in this Chamber have a unique opportunity in the world tonight. I say in the world tonight, because while there are other legislators elected by their constituents in other places in the world, some even older than our democracy, like Iceland, none of them represent the Taj Mahal of democracy which is the American democratic system. And so when we act tonight to try to refine our system, let me suggest that we must act with assertion, we must act in a stalwart manner, and we have got to act aggressively. Right now, the substitute acts with benign neglect of the biggest virus on the body politic in our country right now, which are bogus issue ads, bogus issue ads, which both parties and all special interests are taking out a political hammer and trying to beat their opponent over the head with it and seeking immunity in doing so by saying, 'It wasn't a hammer, it was only a blunt instrument.' The damage to the health of democracy is the same whether we call them hammers or blunt instruments. We have got to make sure we address issue advocacy. The substitute has an abject failure to do so. Shays-Meehan recognizes that the special interests have found a giant loophole. They are taking those hammers and they are walking through. We have got to shut that down.”