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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Spin Control

Well, it’s ‘Medi-‘ something

OLYMPIA -- Gov. Jay Inslee's recent press conferences have been a mix of the good and the bad from the late legislative session.

Yay for the billion added to public schools, the tuition freeze for colleges, expanded health care, the social service programs included in the budget. Boo for the lack of an extra transportation package, failure of the Reproductive Parity Act, Dream Act...

In case anyone missed the coverage in newspapers, blogs, websites, television or radio, the Inslee campaign team took up the refrain this week in a blast e-mail to supporters.With a handy link to click to "spread the word on Facebook"

 But they made one goof,  referring to the extra health care as coming from Medicare, which is a program targeted mainly to seniors, rather than Medicaid, which is targeted at low-income residents.

Yeah, it's a common mistake, and we here at Spin Control have done it a time or two. But we've probably never put it in a big green box with oversized type, at least not without running it past editors.

Campaign machinery gets a little rusty in the months after the election.



Jim Camden
Jim Camden joined The Spokesman-Review in 1981 and retired in 2021. He is currently the political and state government correspondent covering Washington state.

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