Very little. Who says so? Jay Inslee (or at least his campaign).
Don't believe me? Then take a look at his first campaign commercial, which you can see at his web site. In that longish political commercial, the former congressman lists two accomplishments, both of them votes, votes on contentious issues, to be sure, but not anything that required any great amount of work from Inslee.
And that's it. He has been in elected office, with one brief interruption, since 1989, and the sum total of his accomplishments is that he voted right twice.
It's possible, of course, that Inslee will tell us about his accomplishments in later commercials. So I looked up his entry in the authoritative Almanac of American Politics 2012.
They gave him less than a page — and list no significant accomplishments, though they do say that he is "telegenic".
Nor could I find any in the much less authoritative Wikipedia entry.
Both references say that Inslee has "focused" on this issue, or that issue, but neither mention any significant legislation, or investigations.
Younger voters may want to compare Inslee to the late Warren Magnuson, who did not have the same admirable family life as Inslee appears to have had, but did accomplish a few things, even early in his career.
Cross posted at Jim Miller on Politics.
(For those not familiar with Washington state politics: Inslee is the almost-certain Democratic gubernatorial nominee. He will be running against Republican Rob McKenna, a very smart guy, with many accomplishments (and a very nice family). McKenna is currently a slight favorite. It shows something about the weakness of the Democratic party bench in this very Democratic state that Inslee is the best they could come up with.)
Posted by Jim Miller at July 16, 2012 10:56 AM | Email ThisHe has done exactly what Barack Obongo and Nancy Pelosi have told him to do.
Posted by: Saltherring on July 16, 2012 12:12 PMExactly what Nancy Pelosi and Obama told him to do. And not a whole lot else.
Posted by: Jeff B. on July 16, 2012 01:48 PMNARAL says McKenna is "vague" on pro-choice:
http://www.prochoicewashington.org/news/press/201106081.shtml
But McKenna himself told the Seattle Times that he is "Pro-choice":
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004168939_ladenburg07m.html
Apparently McKenna is not pro-choice enough for NARAL, but enough for the state establishment (R) to support him.
Posted by: Constitutionalist on July 16, 2012 03:31 PMMcKenna: pro-choice, looking like Rossi 2.0
Finkbiener: voted for gay marriage
Dunn: supports gay marriage
And the State GOP asks for money. And we get mushy mealy mouthed unprincipled candidates who pander to loud demanding angry minority viewpoints.
Where are the principled mature adults that can say NO to pushy activists?
If WA State is going to go down the same toilet as CA, let it be done totally by the Dems. No point voting for a Dem wannabe....
Posted by: Hank on July 16, 2012 04:01 PMWhen I put up this post, I expected a few to disagree. But I also expected those who disagree to cite examples of Inslee's achievements.
If Inslee has some significant achievements as an elected official, what are they?
(Incidentally, I expected some of those examples to be proposals and positions, rather than achievements, much less significant achievements. Please avoid that error, if you do try to give us examples.)
Posted by: Jim Miller on July 16, 2012 05:18 PMI'm sure Inslee has the moving company on speed dial. If he fails in his bid for governmor he'll likely motor his way to California (to ferret-out a district full of stupid liberals; I hear there are lots of them in Cali).
Posted by: Attila on July 16, 2012 07:02 PMAnd much the same can be said about RINO Rob, who bears for too many similarities to Inslee than differences.
Posted by: Hinton on July 16, 2012 11:53 PMPlease consider him.
Posted by: PeggyU on July 17, 2012 10:23 AMSo true. Sad, but true. It is almost like the Democrats are conceding the race. Maybe they see the truth, which is why Democrats like Brian Sontag are supporting McKenna.
Posted by: tc on July 17, 2012 12:50 PMMcKenna will have a lot of clean up to do after the parade of free-wheeling spending Democrat governors have blown the state budget year after year and helped the inner cities deteriorate.
Posted by: KDS on July 17, 2012 05:54 PMThe old Republican guard needs to decide if they want to win elections, or whether they want to win an argument.
If you want Inslee in office, and another generation of Democrats, keep on with bad-mouthing every Republican who run for office who doesn't give you 100%.
Posted by: janet s on July 17, 2012 08:37 PMI hope that down the road Hadian runs again, though perhaps for a different position.
Posted by: PeggyU on July 20, 2012 11:50 AMIt was his 1990 op-ed about "Global Warming" that led me toward a lifelong inquiry into flaky science of anthropogenic created climate change.
Inslee was the first legislator I ever contacted and it was as result of his op-ed that I investigated all the nonsense.
Posted by: Bart Cannon on July 21, 2012 06:14 PM