Rob McKenna addresses 'get-a-job' confrontation over reproductive parity
The candidate for governor says no good can come of "ambush" questions.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna described last week's "get-a-job" confrontation with a Democratic party volunteer as an "ambush."
McKenna's remarks today (May 1) addressed an incident that occurred April 24, as he left a fisheries conference in Seattle. A Democratic volunteer, Kendra Obom, caught up to McKenna on a sidewalk to ask him about his position of the the Reproductive Parity Act, a bill that died weeks ago in the state Senate.
When Obom, with a voice recorder, asked McKenna about his position on the bill, In reply, he told her to turned off the recorder, and accused her of "trying to bushwack me. It's not really very polite is it. ... Do you think you're honest?"
At the end of that conversation,he told Obom: "You're just trying to gain a political advantage, sorry. ... Why don't you get a job?"
Obom is a YMCA employee. Tailing opposing candidates with recorders is a routine political campaign practice.
News reports said McKenna later declared he opposed the bill because he believes it would jeopardize federal funding to Washington.
On Tuesday, McKenna unveiled his updated jobs creation plan at a press conference at the Tri-Tec Manufacturing Co. in Kent. At the press conference -- speaking to a handful of reporters whose job descriptions would essentially include chasing people down sidewalks to ask unwanted questions -- McKenna described the incident an "ambush."
"I think it is really sad that politics have come to this. ... ambushing people with a microphone," he said.
He also said, "There was no good intention whatsoever reflected in that sort of politics."
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Comments:
Posted Tue, May 1, 1:51 p.m. Inappropriate
A young woman asking a question on the street is an 'ambush'? Is McKenna serious? If he considers this an ambush, he should really consider not running for Governor. I wonder what he thinks a press conference is, a firing squad?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/26/rob-mckenna-kendra-obom-reproductive-rights-get-a-job_n_1455939.html
It truly reflects the utter contempt that McKenna has for his constituents that he couldn't answer a simple question. It was hardly an obscure or difficult question.
When someone runs for office, their job is to answer questions from their constituents rather than asking "Are you being honest?"
Posted Tue, May 1, 5:26 p.m. Inappropriate
Posted Tue, May 1, 5:26 p.m. Inappropriate
edit
Posted Tue, May 1, 5:27 p.m. Inappropriate
So Republican "operatives" chase Inslee down the sidewalks with tape recorders? hadn't heard about that.
Posted Tue, May 1, 6:06 p.m. Inappropriate
@kieth: Google: James O'Keefe. He perfected the "ambush" and I would suspect someone who would love to chase Inslee down sidewalks with video cameras.
Posted Tue, May 1, 8:01 p.m. Inappropriate
OK , yes someone like O'Keefe would "love" to accost Inslee; my comment questioned whether anyone actually HAD done so. Apparently not.
Posted Tue, May 1, 10:36 p.m. Inappropriate
It is a little smarmy.
But is is also useful in exposing an important personality trait of Rob McKenna that he mostly does a good job of keeping under wraps.
Posted Wed, May 2, 5:51 a.m. Inappropriate
It would be useful if Jay would actually address his returning of campaign donations at the end of his last failed run for Governor to his wife and family members... and no one else. What kind of "important personality trait" does that expose?
Inslee was for the State Income Tax, against the privatization of Liquor Sales, in general he is out of touch with Washington voters.
Posted Wed, May 2, 7:31 a.m. Inappropriate
Sooner or later someone will begin to ask Inslee about donations to his House campaign fund and the earmarks he ensured went to the donor's companies (some of them not even in his District). He knows how to chase money on all sides of the equation.
Posted Wed, May 2, 8:31 a.m. Inappropriate
Rob is a pro at running from folks when they try to engage him with LEGIT questions. I don't know if this one was legit, but he has avoided more than one "walk and talk" with me, when he didn't like the subject--domestic violence, and how to avoid it being used an the 'silver bullet' in child custody and visitation disputes.
The Geezer
Posted Wed, May 2, 9:28 a.m. Inappropriate
I guess that would make Inslee a "pro" at making campaign promises and then breaking them. In Washingotn State that makes you Governor Material, If you are a Democrat.
Posted Wed, May 2, 9:31 a.m. Inappropriate
At least when Mike Wallace chased someone down the street shouting questions, you could understand what was being said. The real outrage in all this is the abysmal production values revealed in these recordings.
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