An expensive legal fight over restoring salmon habitat is emerging as a campaign issue among two Democratic candidates for Washington Governor. KVI’s John Carlson interviews gubernatorial candidate, Mark Mullet–a Democratic State Senator from Issaquah–who is criticizing his Democratic Party opponent, Washington Attorney General, Bob Ferguson, who lost a lengthy legal battle with a coalition of indigenous tribes in a case that ended with the tribes victorious in the U.S. Supreme Court.
To listen to Carlson’s interview with Mullet, click the play button below.
Mullet tells KVI, “I think AG Ferguson is quick to brag when he gets money back for the Washington consumer. Notice he’s radio silence in this case which is taxpayers on the hook for $7.8 billion because he chose to take this to court instead of settle with our local tribes.”
This article fails to mention the State of Washington now has a $7.8 billion fish culvert problem because our Attorney General Bob Ferguson's ego got in the way of a potential settlement with our local tribes on this issue.
AG Ferguson was so…
— Mark Mullet (@electmullet) March 11, 2024
The 2018 U.S. Supreme Court ruling revolved around restoring Washington salmon habitat by removing culverts under roadways that were designed to allow salmon to swim up stream. As a result of the ruling, those culverts need to be removed around Washington to create more natural access for salmon to migrate upstream and spawn.
In Mullet’s KVI interview he notes, ” Not all culverts are created equal. I will admit some of these fish passages, they were worth replacing because they are going to free up a lot of habitat restoration. But I think the risk you had when you went to court is you’re not going to have that thoughtful dialogue case by case to say ‘hey let’s fix this one because it makes sense’. Now the court just put a bunch of them on list and said ‘go fix all of these until you restore 90% of your habitat restoration.’ And so this is the ultimate challenge of why going to court was a really dangerous decision (by Ferguson).”
Mullet and Ferguson are both Democratic candidates for Washington Governor in a campaign to replace Gov. Jay Inslee who has decided not to run again for re-election. Republican candidates for Governor include Dave Reichert and Semi Bird.
