OLYMPIA, March 10.—Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee handed his walking papers to Congress Saturday, a not-altogether-unexpected resignation that will give him more time to build his struggling campaign, but leave the voters of his district without representation until after the November election.

Starting March 20, Inslee says he will be a full-time candidate, spending every moment of the next seven months promoting his campaign. Inslee says the state’s two senators can represent the 1st Congressional District just as well as he could. And the timing of his announcement suggests astute planning to help ensure that his party retains control of the 1st District seat in the next election.

“I’m going to give everything I have to the cause of winning the governorship of the state of Washington, and I am going to hold nothing back,” he declared at a news conference at the downtown Seattle office building where his campaign is headquartered.

“I am not one for half-measures or halfhearted efforts. I am going to leave everything on the field and I’m going to go everywhere, I’m going to explore everything and I’m going to listen to everybody in the state of Washington. If you have an idea, I want to hear it. If you have a problem, I want to know about it. And if you have a business, I want to help you grow.

“I am all-in for the race to be the next governor for the state of Washington.”

No Representation for 1st District

It is a move that will cost Inslee his title and his Capitol-Hill parking spot, but really nothing else. He can’t run for two positions at the same time, and so his gubernatorial campaign prevents him from running for an eighth consecutive term in Congress. The resignation spares him the trouble of flying back and forth to D.C. to represent his suburban Puget Sound district at a time when his political interests lie back home. But while Inslee said Saturday “we made the decision quite recently,” certainly it appeared to have involved a bit of thought.

By announcing his resignation after March 6, Inslee has passed the state deadline for a special election in the 1st Congressional District. Instead he ensures that his seat will appear on the ballot in the August primary and November general election. A crowded field of Democratic candidates is running for the position. Had it gone to a winner-take-all special election in June, the splintered Democratic vote might easily have handed the victory to Republican John Koster.

Inslee downplayed the cost to the voters of the district. He said it won’t make a difference. “My people are still going to be represented well by [Sens.] Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray,” he said.

He also said his congressional staff “will still be available and they will still be working for the state,” although it is not clear for whom specifically they will be working.

Republicans Call him a Quitter

Republicans said Inslee is leaving voters in the lurch. “It’s shameful of Congressman Inslee to lie to his constituents and the people of Washington about his intentions,” said Washington state Republican Chairman Kirby Wilbur. “The people elect individuals to office to serve a ‘public trust,’ and his calculated actions today just show that the people of Washington cannot trust Congressman Inslee to keep his word.”

Republican candidate Rob McKenna released a statement as well:

“I look forward to hearing Congressman Inslee explain how 15 years in Washington, D.C. have prepared him to lead our state, now that he is quitting Congress,” he said. “Our team has been waging a campaign of ideas since last June, yet the congressman waited over seven months after announcing his candidacy to release any specific proposals.

“The jobs plan the congressman did finally release started with creation of a new state agency, rather than creating a better climate for our small businesses; he has proposed nothing for the improvement of our public schools or colleges; and his state government reform plan amounts to a vague endorsement of lean manufacturing principles he has never used himself. Underscoring his reluctance to provide specifics, the congressman himself said in a recent interview, ‘I have decided not to articulate more than that at this time.’ ”

Inslee No Underdog, Dems Say

Inslee’s resignation has been rumored for months, ever since early polling in the race showed him at a serious disadvantage. Unusual in a state which has not elected a Republican governor since 1980, Attorney General McKenna enjoyed a tremendous lead from the moment he entered. The state’s highest-profile elected Republican, McKenna has enjoyed broad and enthusiastic support from his own party, and at least until a “session freeze” stopped him from raising money while the Legislature meets, he has had a big fund-raising advantage as well.

Those early polls gave McKenna six-and-seven-point advantages. Partisan political organizations also have been in the field since last June, though little has been heard of them until recently – they do not typically release numbers unless they are favorable to their side, nor do they typically indicate how questions are asked.

But in the last two weeks, two Democratic-leaning organizations have chosen to disclose polling numbers that indicate the race has tightened up and is a dead heat, at 38-38 and 42-42.

Those numbers were released, respectively, by Public Policy Polling and two leading Washington labor unions, the Service Employees International Union and the Washington Federation of State Employees.

State Democratic Party chairman Dwight Pelz said the new poll results show that Inslee and McKenna are evenly matched, and Inslee’s decision to step down will give him a better chance to make his pitch to the state.

“His campaign is not in trouble,” Pelz said. “There are two polls coming out showing the race tied. Last time I checked, in this business when we have a tied race, both sides are doing well and doing poorly at the same time, and I think that the fact that these polls have tightened up shows that this is an incredibly competitive race. This is a blue state, okay?

“We have got months to go. We have got a tied race right now. We have got a Democratic president who is growing in popularity, while the Republican challenger is dropping in popularity in Washington state.

“You know, if you walk into the strategy rooms of McKenna or Inslee, I think they have got more to worry about in McKenna’s shop than they do in the Inslee shop. There is a reason we haven’t elected a Republican governor for 32 years in this state.”

Says He is Vision Candidate

Inslee said he doesn’t think he’s in trouble, either. “We have always believed this was a competitive race,” he said. “It was competitive at the beginning. It is competitive now and it would not surprise me if it is competitive right to the end.

“But I welcome competition. I am a competitor and I respect all of my opponents and I fear none. We believe that my experience in working in job creation, my vision of the job creation plan that we have proposed, and I am the only candidate who has proposed a job creation plan – people are going to respond to the hopeful vision that we have in creating whole new industries in the state of Washington. So we feel confident of our position in this race.”

Inslee also took numerous swipes at Republicans, denouncing McKenna for failing to denounce the budget proposal recently passed by a coalition of Senate Republicans and moderate Democrats at the statehouse. “I am hopeful over time that he will join us in speaking against some of these wrongheaded Republican ideas, like trying to deny women contraception and some of these arguments,” Inslee said. “We need more jobs in this state and that is what I am all about.”

Your support matters.

Public service journalism is important today as ever. If you get something from our coverage, please consider making a donation to support our work. Thanks for reading our stuff.