Is Jay Inslee Preparing to Run for Governor?

By Andrew at May 13th, 2010.

While most of yesterday’s hubbub centered around Gov. Gregoire being floated for an appointment to the Obama Admin., there were some equally interesting undercurrents just as strong.

Democratic State Auditor Brian Sonntag was apparently convinced that an appointment may be imminent, and was thus flushed out as a contender in the Democratic primary field. But when a reporter for The Fix today checked in with Democratic Congressman Jay Inslee about a potential bid for Governor, a spokesman would only say “neither the White House nor Gregoire’s office had contacted them.” That’s an odd response. Don’t you think?

Over at the Seattle Weekly, in a piece applauding State Democrats in their efforts to malign Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna’s own gubernatorial ambitions, Nina Shapiro dropped an interesting bread crumb about Inslee:

Republicans, of course, might want to try the same strategy on the Dems’ best hope for the governor’s office: Representative Jay Inslee, who is rumored to be considering a run. But they’ll have to come up with slightly more creative URLs. The domains jayinsleeforgovernor.com, jayinleeforgovernor.net and jayinsleeforgovernor.org have all been snapped up by Democratic political operative Christopher McCullough.

Who is Chris McCullough? Well-known in Seattle-area enviro-left circles, McCullough managed Inslee’s 2004 and 2006 re-election efforts, before leaving to work for the progressive political action group Fuse. Following the ‘08 elections, he was a functionary for the state’s Obama campaign effort, before going to work as a consultant to liberal candidates and campaigns.

According to a search of domain ownership records, McCullough only recently bought the site URLs. While he could be squatting on them as pure speculation himself, it’s more likely he bought them up for his prospective gubernatorial client: Jay Inslee.

In addition to the McCullough website intrigue, it appears Inslee is getting other remnants of his old campaign team back together. FEC expenditure reports confirm that Inslee’s 1998 campaign manager and longtime Chief of Staff (until 2005), Joby Shimumora, is apparently back on his campaign payroll doing “political outreach.”

Will Inslee be the next candidate flushed out into the Democratic gubernatorial primary field? Unless he’s part of the Gregoire-Murray-Peltz conspiracy, or still waiting to take his cue from the Obama White House, methinks Inslee is as good as in.

Tags: Adam Smith, Brian Sonntag, Chris McCulloug, Jay Inslee, Jay Inslee for Governor, Joby Shimumora, Nina Shapiro, Rob McKenna