The gubernatorial campaign of Attorney General Christine Gregoire imploded last week with revelations that her office tried to doctor an "investigation" into its own failure to appeal a verdict that cost the taxpayers $18 million.
That was the implosion, now comes Gregoire's long painful meltdown. Republicans in the legislature are calling for an investigation into what the P-I calls Gregoire's "appeal fiasco". Yesterday's Seattle Times says that whether she fights or settles the wrongful termination claim of the AG staffer who was scapegoated in the fiasco, Gregoire looks bad and the taxpayers lose.
Even worse, we learn that the taxpayers have lost much more than the $18 million in the original unappealed verdict.
As a result of the Beckman mistake and other significant verdicts and settlements in 2000-2001, the state's insurance deductible jumped from $5 million to $25 million for claims against the Departments of Social and Health Services (DSHS) and Corrections.Unfortunately, Washington's taxpayers can't require Christine Gregoire to make us whole for her mismanagement. But we can and will reject her bid to become our next governor. Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at April 26, 2004 11:14 AMFor all other state departments, the deductible amount was increased from $5 million to $15 million, said Betty Reed, director of the Division of Risk Management.