Senator Marko Liias made headlines—in this here paper—when he came out as the prime sponsor of a bill aiming to jack up the already insanely high interest rates on payday loans. Liias, who’d received donations from payday lenders, eventually withdrew his support for the bill, which would have made it damn near impossible for folks who borrow from payday lenders—already poor, already struggling—to ever repay the money they borrowed.
What kind of person works like hell to get his sorry ass elected and then thinks, “I came to Olympia to help those poor, oppressed payday loan companies.” This guy did—this guy that we’re endorsing in his current race for an even higher office. Liias’s response when we pummeled him with questions about his payday loan debacle: “I fucked up on that.”
You sure did, buddy. And if you had drawn a stronger challenger in this race, we would’ve endorsed that person instead. But you didn’t draw a stronger challenger, and so here we are…
