Murray, Inslee rally Democrats in Pasco

Sen. Patty Murray and Gov. Jay Inslee packed a Pasco labor hall Saturday, urging Democrats to get out the vote for the party up and down the ballot Tuesday.

Murray is already looking ahead to what will happen after the election.

“I’m tired of how this election has gone — the divisiveness, the meanness, the rhetoric, the putting people down that don’t agree with you,” she said.

Tuesday night will be a time to celebrate, she predicted. But after that “we will all work together to heal our country.”

The people of the nation will need to listen, to reach out and to find points of agreement with each other, she said.

Murray has been behind anything good for the Hanford nuclear reservation that came out of the Senate over the past decade, Inslee said, as he stood in the the Local 598 hall, the union home to many Hanford pipefitters. Murray has fought for environmental cleanup money for the site.

Inslee reminded voters of his successes in his first term as governor, from education to jobs.

Every child in the state now has full-day kindergarten, he said. Class sizes have been reduced, hard-working educators have received a modest raise, teachers have a mentorship program and college tuition has been cut.

The state has had the highest rate of small business job creation in the nation, he said.

“This is a part of the world that is leading in technology and I’m proud to be a governor who understands it,” he said.

He mentioned Washington State University Tri-Cities research to develop biofuels for jets. And he praised Energy Northwest for its planned first-of-a-kind solar power generating and storage facility just north of Richland.

Voters can keep progress rolling forward by electing him, he said, before leaving for a campaign stop in Spokane. He and Murray had been in Yakima earlier in the day.

The governor’s Republican challenger, Bill Bryant, campaigned Saturday in Seattle and Puyallup, along with the Republican candidate for the Senate, Chris Vance.

Bryant launched his final get-out-the-vote push in the Tri-Cities Oct. 28, talking about education funding, addressing homelessness and strengthening the state’s mental health system.

Vance told supporters Saturday that polls showed he had cut Murray’s lead. He reminded voters that the state has a history of close elections, according to his campaign staff. He plans a town hall on Facebook at 5 p.m. Sunday.

This story was originally published November 5, 2016 at 7:23 PM with the headline "Murray, Inslee rally Democrats in Pasco."