I was forwarded a couple precinct maps showing the vote on Initiative 912, and I thought the excerpt above was somewhat interesting. This map (PDF) shows those precincts which voted 70% or greater against I-912. Of course, the initiative was strongly opposed in Seattle, but look how poorly it did in Mercer Island, Bellevue and much of the Eastside.
I-912 — the love child of conservative KVI talk hosts John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur — was officially endorsed by the state GOP and many prominent Republicans… yet it went down big in traditionally Republican precincts. You might not know it yet by looking at the composition of the city councils, but these former GOP strongholds are steadily trending blue.
A year ago, in my post election analysis (“Subdivide and conquer: a strategy for a new Democratic majority“), I pointed towards this trend as one of the few hopeful signs coming out of the disappointing 2004 election:
Just like the Democrats lost their base in the South with their support of civil rights legislation in the sixties, the GOP risks alienating their moderate, suburban base by abandoning fiscal conservatism to focus on right-wing social issues at home, and military and economic imperialism abroad. The neo-cons may dominate the national Republican leadership, but they do not represent the majority of suburban voters.
Families move to places like Mercer Island for better public schools, cleaner streets, safer neighborhoods, and all the other public services that a higher property tax base provides. These are people who believe in government because they benefit from it every day, and they routinely tax themselves to pay for the services they want.
These are people with whom urban Democrats have common ground, and we have an opportunity to exploit the wedge the neo-cons have provided, to expand our base politically and geographically. For in addition to a shared belief that good government is necessary to maintaining a high quality of life, suburban and city voters have a mutual interest in maintaining an economically and culturally vibrant urban core.
One shouldn’t read too much into the precinct maps from a single election, but the vote on I-912 certainly does nothing to counter the trend we’ve been seeing for years. Even as Democrats have lost ground in Eastern WA and other rural areas, we have gradually become the majority party in many populous, close-in suburbs.
But my sense is that this shift is as much a result of what the GOP has done wrong as it is what the Democrats have done right (or even, simple demographics.) I’m constantly hearing from self-described moderate Republicans who complain that their party has left them, rather than the other way around. The challenge for Democrats is to convince these suburban voters to change their party identification, not just their votes, much the same way the GOP eventually accommodated and absorbed the old southern Dixiecrats.
This process could take decades, so if you’re a Democrat, I’d take the map above with a grain of salt. But if you are Republican, I advise you to take it with a couple of aspirins and fifth of whiskey, for there’s nothing about these trends that looks good for your party’s prospects.
only trend is…
Fremont libs get married and move to the Eastside,
and/or Wallinford libs get priced out of their 2 bedroom overpriced cottages and also move to the eastside.
You are migrating, not converting…
I like good government, I just haven’t seen any of it lately. Good governments don’t get sued for selling it’s residents brains for money and more employees, good government has fair and honest elections, and good government takes care of the poor and the needy, not themselves and their buddies.
Let’s not forget the 15% interest rates we experienced with President Jimmy Carter coincided with comparatively small budget deficits and accumulated debt. U.S. Interest rates fell during the 80’s, even though the accumulated federal debt increased. Look at Japan today: Japan’s accumulated federal debt is 130% of their GDP, the highest in the industrialized world, higher than anything the U.S. saw in the 80’s, and their interest rates are 0.15%. That’s not a typo, that’s less far less than one percent. You are foolish if you believe the Reagan tax cuts were “a total failure.” Keynesian government spending to “stimulate” the economy is a total failure. That should be our lesson: government isn’t going to lead us, free individuals will lead themselves. No society has ever taxed themselves to prosperity.
Chuck –
I suggest that Japanese interest rates reflect their DECADES-LONG economic slump. And are you suggesting that the highly-managed, government-subsidized Japanese economy represents “free individuals leading themselves?”
Goldy–
Using I-912 as some sort of political party litmus test is humorous at best. A lot of those highway contractors and their workers live on the Eastside and very few are Dems. Even bigger is that Eastsiders who commute to Seattle were absolutely desperate. This same group, when exit polled, also overwhelmingly stated they had little confidence in WSDOT….they were merely hoping for some traffic congestion relief.
What a shock it will be to those folks to learn that I-912 has little, if any, really traffic congestion relief for them.
They should all just abandoned their cars and take a bus, bike or walk NOW…just like the social-engineeing NEW AGE LEFTIST PINHEADED KLOWNS would have it!.
Daddy Love@4
“And are you suggesting that the highly-managed, government-subsidized Japanese economy represents “free individuals leading themselves?””
Possibly not, but that is EXACTLY what led us out of Carters total economic flop under Reagans leadership, as well as government intervention and taxation under Clinton is what drove us back under towards the last 2 years of his watch.
1.
Not migrating. We’d never live on the dread eastside amid the bozos in their SUVs. As soon as wifey can get out of commuting to Redmond, she will.
We’re glad to see that all the precincts adjoining (within a mile square, actually) ours were 70% plus against 912.
Now, if Christine can get Greg to give up on the tunnel…
Hey, why dont you libs put your money where your mouth is, it would be much cheaper to tear the top road off of the viaduct to prevent it pancaking in an earthquake, resurface the bottom tier and make it an alternative fueled vehicle only road. It could be a bike trail/electrical powered vehicle/and lard powered bus(biodiesel) only road. I can see it now, imagine the greenhouse gasses you will save! Damn it will be like a John Lennon song brought to life! Just “imagine”!
Sounds good. I’ve always looked at the viaduct as my private freeway. Keeping the Ahhhnalds of the world off of it suits me.
Yes, “imagine all the people” build it and they will come with their lard powered busses and bicycles and be one loving family and no more road rage….
The change has been going on for quite some time. In ’93, the old JA (Eastside paper) ran a poll in which 25% of the respondants said it was acceptable to kill abortion providers. Not many years later, Eastsider Bill Backstrom, the most anti-abortion Republican in the WA Senate was defeated by Laura Ruderman, a pro-choice Democrat.
It doesn’t make difference whether it’s converting people or changing the demographics. Surely a lot of the Backstrom-type Republicans have moved to Idaho to be with Bo Gritz and Mark Fuhrman. But more of it is disillusionment with Republican happy horseshit.
RW slogans that used to be so powerful on the Eastside (like “Mass transit is a socialist program straight from the Communist Manifesto”) just don’t have the same appeal these days. RW yakkers and their talking points have as much chance of stopping this tide as King Canute and his “divine right”.
You have to love it. The right wing turds were claiming 912 would be some sort of referendum on our Governor. That it would “send a message” (the montra of cowardly chickenhawk Carlson on KVI) and now all of a sudden, it wasn’t really a benchmark???????
You have to give it to the inbred morons on the right. At least they are predictable in thier quest to be all things hypocrite
I want Seattle to build the tunnel. I want your city to show the whole world how to spend and waste billions of dollars and continue to demand more. To use the words of a wise rabbit, Go for it! Spend! Spend! Spend!
There will be a day of reckoning up there when the average person has had enough. Obviously, from the last election, you are not at their limit yet.
Roger Rabitt needs those 100 million dollar critter bridges across I-90 so that he can spread his genes on both sides of the Interstate.
Bill Gates needs the floating bridge covered with landscaped lids costing untold millions so that the roof of his Bentley and Rolls don’t get wet.
Olympia needs 100 million dollar sound walls on I-5 to protect the animals who are live next to the Interstate, because they are very few houses around I-5 down here.
All of the midget mini car drivers need the cable barriers put in the center dividers of roads to stop them from crossing over and having accidents. The SUV drivers will have to wait years to get concrete jersey barriers to stop them from crossing over.
All of us who have to occasionally go to Seattle for business can either be stuck on I-5 for hours or we can take our business elsewhere.
WSDOT can continue to pay 8% of our road taxes back to the state for sales tax, because the general fund really needs the money.
We need to continue to pay those Stop/Slow sign twirlers 25 bucks an hour, because we couldn’t educate them and they wouldn’t pass the WASL now.
sgmmac @ 2 – “…good government takes care of the poor and the needy…”
C’mon, that’s bullshit. Maybe help somebody out for a short while if they’re down, but the way we do it now is stupid. People on the public dole for years and years and years and then the next generation starts.
Most people whoa re “poor and needy” got that way through a lifetime of bad choices. Subsidizing those choices and taking away the consequences of stupid choices only ensures more of the same in the future.
@mtr
Our government has a morale and ethical responsibility to take care of the poor, the downtrodden, the homeless, and the helpless wretches amoung us.
I don’t give a damn who made what choice. I do care that Americans go to sleep with food in their bellies and a shelter over their head.
If I hear one more news report about Katrina victims being thrown out of hotels, I am gonna scream, I am gonna start writing the most scathing letters to anybody and everybody I can find.
I am disgusted with lies, corruption and stupidness from our legislators, both State and Federal and both parties too!
Mark the Redneck
So you’re saying we all agree on the goal, but differ only on the implementation?
PhilK @ 11:
Backlund, not Backstrom. House, not Senate.
@ 13
Come on, you live in figging Lacey! We’ve got our 2 billion in state money, so folks from your neighborhood have made their contribution. Besides, I figure Seattle has been subsidizing the “early Lacey’s” road construction (no need to thank us).
Goldy,
What’s the deal with the precinct at the south end of Lake Sammamish? They go commie or somethin’?
Chuck @ 6
Oh, Chuck, Chuck, Chuck, what are we giong to do with you? Carter cannot be blamed for the double-digit inflation that peaked on his watch, because inflation started growing in 1965 due largely to Johnson’s “guns and butter” approach to Vietnam, and snowballed for the next 15 years, helped by the two 1970s oil shocks inreasing prices and driving down productivity (the first, in 1973, was on Nixon’s watch, BTW). To battle inflation, Carter appointed Paul Volcker as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, who defeated it by putting the nation through a painful and intentional recession. Once the threat of inflation abated in late 1982, Volcker cut interest rates and flooded the economy with money, fueling an expansion that lasted seven years.
And Clinton’s last two years? Firest, I notice you’re iiIgnoring the longest economic expansion in US history combined with startlingly low unemployment. Nothing to see there, right? You really shouldn’t say silly things like this.
In 1992, 10 million Americans were unemployed, the country faced record deficits, and poverty and welfare rolls were growing. Family incomes were losing ground to inflation and jobs were being created at the slowest rate since the Great Depression. Under Clinton, economic growth averaged 4.0 percent per year, the economy created an average of more than 2.8 million jobs per year, real median family income increased by $6,338 between 1993 and 1999, inflation averaged 2.4% annually, and the poverty rate declined from 15.1 percent in 1993 to 11.8 percent in 2000. Also between 1998-2000, the publicly held debt was reduced by $363 billion — the largest three-year pay-down in American history. Um, did I mention that our national debt on Dumbya’s watch is now two trillion dollars higher that it was in 2000?
“…drove us back under towards the last 2 years of his watch.”
B-b-b-but Chuck, the National Bureau of Economic Research does not agree with you. It announced on November 26, 2001 that “a peak in business activity occurred in the U.S. economy in March 2001. A peak marks the end of an expansion and the beginning of a recession. The determination of a peak date in March is thus a determination that the expansion that began in March 1991 ended in March 2001 and a recession began. The expansion lasted exactly 10 years, the longest in the NBER’s chronology.”
A “peak?” But, Chuck, that would mean that the economy was growing, jobs being created, etc. until after Bill Clinton left office. If the business community had no confidence in Dumbya, that ain’t Bill’s fault. And your claim is just flat wrong, right?
Well, so that map shows that the most populous portion of the state is becoming more Democratic? Good.
Makes sense to me , those in heavily populated areas vote more for government because they see a direct bang for their dollar . They also see more bangs from guns , crime , drug abuse , and the other things associated with relying on government . The American Dream is changing , some say its gone , but I guess if the democrats keep winning as this map suggests , one day our kids will be hoping to grow up in a neigborhood where they have as much chance for public transportation getting them there as they do of having their car stolen .
Mr. Cynical @ 5. You, sir are humorous. I-912 was exactly a litmus
test for the repubuglicans. A call to arms by Chris Rancid, Carlson, and Kirby to there party robots.”Do as I tell you,do not question the party line”. They thought, as Bill Clinton has said, and thinking, voted liberal and democratic.
To suggest otherwise is at best, disengenuous. More likely your true colors as no more than a republican troll. Face it,Chris Rancid represents a the dying Repugnant neo-con, Rovian party. So do you.
Eastside republickuns figured most of gas tax is going to freeways, the floating bridge, widening 405, etc. Their vote indicates they haven’t a clue how much worse traffic will become.
The republican party isn’t led by anti-government fanatics – there to terrify into conformity with rabid predictions of dire consequences. No. It’s the Big Business interests who’s source of power is ‘automobile dependency’ who are directing republican voter intent. Buy that car, buy that truck. Finance it, insure it. Drive it every day, as far as possible. Prevent all choice to do otherwise. Customize and co-ordinate your car. Put on an alarm, put in a TV and a satellite navigation system, a boom box stereo, refridgerator, cell phone holder, coffee warmer. “We don’t need no damn GM. We’ll just build cars in China. As long as American motorists keep driving like chickens with their heads cut off, we’ll keep featherin’ our nests”.
The People’s Waterfront Coalition have the right idea, (no tunnel, no elevated replacement for the viaduct), but none of the clowns on this forum have a clue. What a frickin waste of time. Seattle – the armpit of the Northwest. How about the new freeway park? It looks like a another sterilized assinine artsy-fartsy shithole.
Interesting — the farther out you get from the city core, the lower the “no” vote. Still a strong “no” but … the exurban voters driving the farthest must LIKE paying high fuel prices. Maybe dumping $70 into the fuel tank is an ego trip for these yahoos. Probably the same ones who complain they can’t afford their child support because gas is so expensive.
Redneck, regarding your comment “Most people whoa re “poor and needy” got that way through a lifetime of bad choices.”
What exactly do you mean by the term ‘most’? Seventy percent? Ninety? Given that last I heard there were something like 10K homeless in Seattle (a number that is growing in every major city in the US right now) that means there are still 1000 people who need help through no fault of their own right now.
What exactly are you advocating? Watching them starve to death? Maybe you get your entertainment in the winter reading the articles about people who froze to death on the streets the night before? Lookup the phrase ‘Hooverville’ to see how well that policy will work.
And I would have to disagree with your evaluation of most, most statistics I’ve seen indicate that most homeless are mentally ill, they are there because people like you didnt want to pay for long term hospitalization back in the 80s. Are you suggesting that people somehow choose to be schizophrenic?
I guess, though, you are perfectly representing the current administrations position on this sort of thing, ‘theres no point in helping the homeless because some of them are cheaters’. Why bother to adress those who actually need help when you can lump them in with an unknown number of cheaters and let them all starve to death, save a lot of money that way.
Bottom line here, what do you propose as an alternative, or are you just whining?
“They also see more bangs from guns , crime , drug abuse , and the other things associated with relying on government.”
Let’s see:
FBI statistics show that southern “red” states have the highest murder rates, despite the fact that our largest cities are in blue states (New York, LA, Chicago). The top 5 highest murder rates per 100,000 in America? Louisiana (17.5), Mississippi (11.1), Alabama (10.4), Tennessee (9.5) and South Carolina (9.0).
Oh, and the higher divorce and teen pregnancy rates in the “live free or die” red states?
I don’t have too many stats on drug abuse, but I hear that meth is really tearing up the “give small government or give me high deficits” red states. See Rural US gripped by meth epidemic.
Yes, government in the cities is definitely the problem.
Sgmmac
$25 dollar an hour sign twirlers ??? That is a very dangerous and necessary job . I am sure you and your repug friends would like to see that and all jobs handed over to low bidder or even outsourced like your mos . You were probably a cook or clerk typist (remf) and now cheneys cronies are doing the bulk of that work . Have you heard the pop . King County gov. operates smoother than your repug controlled federal gov . POP
Belltowner,
You do have a good point on Seattle taxpayers subsidizing other areas of the state. I don’t have a problem with taxes being spent on safety and need. Of the three options I have seen for the viaduct, I like bridge. However, every project doesn’t have to be gold plated Taj Mahals……..
Neither the viaduct or the 405 will be built in the next year or so, same as the monorail, same as light rail. Get a consensus and build something!
Bottom line here, what do you propose as an alternative, or are you just whining?
Comment by bill — 12/18/05 @ 12:48 pm {Er, Bill, If illegal aliens can find work AND send money home to Mexico, why can’t Democrat welfare hacks? If YOU wish to support these Democrat losers, feel free!! Just leave the taxpayers out of it!!]
Yes, government in the cities is definitely the problem.
Comment by Daddy Love — 12/18/05 @ 12:55 pm {Er, Daddy Love, Ther “100%” Democrat cities of Gary, Detroit, Philly, and South Central LA are great places for Democrats like you and Goldensteinburgloeb to take your families for a stroll at 2 AM. Lots of Democrat “Tookies” for you to “bond” with, and maybe some of these fine young Democrats will get to know your families on an “personal” basis. Yes, Democrat cities are wonderful places for you “progressives” to visit at 2 AM. BTW, do you have any daughters? Lots of Democrat “Tookies” to “date” them!!!! [hehe]
Yes, government in the cities is definitely the problem.
Comment by Daddy Love — 12/18/05 @ 12:55 pm [BTW, NY City and Chicago has lots of young Democrats to “entertain” your wife and kids when visiting at 2 AM. Happy Democrat AIDs Day!!]
Yes, government in the cities is definitely the problem.
Comment by Daddy Love — 12/18/05 @ 12:55 pm [Also, many New Orleans Democrat blacks [looters, felons, 3rd generation welfare hacks] would like to “explore” your Democrat wife and kids. Not a Republican around for miles to ruin their “Democrat” fun!!!]]
goldy,
superimpose the double vote count…. would be fascinating to see the correlation….
Of course you know voter intent; they all intend to vote your way
proud at 20;
that blue thing is a park on the lake; all the dems (dwarfs) likely register there….
someone should investigate……i’ll tell shark since no dem/kcre person would ever dare
Heh Goldy, can we see the map of the rest of the state, you know all of the rest of the people in this great state who’s opinions should count and be shown!
ALL YOU RIGHT WING ZOMBIES — Keep chirping about some imagined voter frauds – on and on — and keep losing elections.
AND keep venial Vance, he is such a winner in non strategy and shallow tactics.
Bring back Ellen Craswell and some of the other toads, they can pontificate on KVI about how their navels are swollen, and the Dems can win the elections.
Dale,
I am sure it is dangerous and necessary. I am also sure that the pay does NOT equal the training or the danger. It doesn’t relate very well to the education level either. How much are home health care workers in this state paid? How much does a nurse make?
I HATE outsourcing. I think outsourcing was the only thing that I agreed with Kerry on……. I have been raging about outsourcing for at least 4 or 5 years. That and my rages about how blood thirsty drug companies are got me a big “shut up” from my Dad!
My mos wasn’t outsourced. I am a female and since females can’t join combat units, all females are remfs!
Saying that King County operates smoother than the Federal Government isn’t saying much is it?
After the first Gulf war they finally came up with a plan for Gulf War illness and a study group that tests you and then follows your medical conditions and status for years. It was voluntary, they bombed me with letters, emails, and phone calls. I had to tell them NO at least a dozen times. Why? I don’t trust them with my medical records, this is the same government that denied Agent Orange hurt anyone and put platoons of soldiers in the Nevada Desert and set off nuclear weapons a couple of miles away to study the effects of radiation on people. It is also the same government that gave active duty personnel in Vietnam LSD as well as some government scientists. My first duty station was Fort Carson, Colorado from 1973 to 1976 and during that time we had the world wide public panic over Swine Flu and how it was going to be a pandemic, they came up with a vaccine and of course all of the military had to get the shot. I got THREE flu shots at one time, the Hong Kong Flu, The Victoria A Flu, and the Swine Flu, two were combined and we got a shot in each arm. 8 hours later, I was convinced I was dying, laying all alone in my apartment with 105 degree fever, burning up, shivering, tossing my guts up and running to the toilet. You know it’s bad when you don’t know whether to sit or hug! A few years ago some Congressman tried to put a clause in the Defense Bill to use the Active Duty military as test subjects for an experimental Aids vaccine. The Feds have given thousands of soldiers Anthrax vaccines and I’m sure you’ve heard how well that turned out for some people. I was also one of those soldiers in the first gulf war to take a little white pill that was supposed to protect us from nerve agents. About 10 hours later I was at the medics with a soldier who swelled up like a balloon from the pill, because NO-ONE told any of the leaders that people with high blood pressure shouldn’t take the pill and that the pill could kill them.
How many lawsuits has King County faced since Rons Sims took over? Selling brains? Screwed up elections that gained national notoriety? Monorail? Gridlock? How many sex scandels have you had up there? There is corruption at all levels in this state, the Federal Government and society as a whole.
FYI —– Monorail is City of Seattle. Only. Completely.
Sims is King County.
No connection. Sims is very pro Sound Transit. The giant newer entitly that is actually building light rail and doing more buses – and moving forward agressively as we speak. Just granted 500 mille from the feds.
FYI
The secret to improving the economy while cutting taxes (the GOP way) is to keep government spending high at the same time. You run a huge deficit but that doesn’t have an effect in the short term, while all the spending heats up the economy. Let the next guy worry about the deficit. Both Reagan and Bush have used this method.
37
Works great if you can get China to lend you several trillion dollars at zero interest. Here’s a question, what will happen to the federal deficit when interest rates go up and the government has to pay (a) higher interest (b) on a larger debt? Answer: The deficit will begin feeding on itself.
31
more baseless hot air from the soreloserwing of the soreloserparty.
You want hot air:
Whoooowshhh Diebold, Ohio 2004, Florida 2000 fwwiiiissssssh.
Now that is some hot air.
Uh Excuse me Wabbit, Who is spendin money in this state like drunkun sailors…..It’s the Christine Gregoire (I HAVE NEVER RAISED TAXES ON THE CITIZENS OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON) Bunch!
Ha 15 Billion + or so later!
Daddy Love@21
Nice fantasy world you live in my freind…
http://www.newsmax.com/archive.....0717.shtml
Daddy Love@21
More food for thought….
http://www.freerepublic.com/fo.....796b11.htm
Whatsa matta Chuck? Can’t state the case yourself? ooh, Newsmax and Free Republic. Bastions of objective analysis, those. I gotta say that I’m not surprised, though. But here’s a question: You quote NewsMax and Free Republic and say that I live in a fantasy world?
First, NewsMax. Didn’t read the whole thing; just found the first couple of egregious falsehoods, knowing they’d come early. So I’ll debunk those and save us all the time of debunking EVERY lie therein:
I personally don’t know if Clinton worked with OPEC to rase oil prices. NewsMax offers no proof; merely asserts. It would be against the whole aim of his time in office though, when he worked to keep oil price as low as possible, which is ONE reason (but not the only one) that we had such a robust economy during the 1990s.
The oil sales helped Saddam Hussein re-arm his military with a brand new Chinese-built air defense system.
Oh, yeah, that was SUCH a effective system. Damn, I wish we hadn’t made it possible for him to acquire it. It must have cost us five extra minutes in 2003. You know, don’t you, that Iraq had virtually NO air defenses in 2003? let me tell you somethign, Chuck, just saying something does not make it true.
The move [to raise oil prices] is also now seen as a major blunder that triggered the 2001 recession.
“Now seen” by whom? Were you even here in 2000? The recession was brought on by reckless interest rate hikes by the Fed and Alan Greenspan; raised FIVE TIMES between 1999 and 2000. I remember raging at the time about how they had gone too far too fast and would choke off our economic growth. Oil prices reached a PEAK of less than $30 a barrel btween 1998 and 9/11. Hardly enough to trigger ANYTHING, let alone a recession. You do know that oil is over $60 a barrel NOW under the Boy King? Why does Bush hate America?
The Freep posting is referring only to economic news in October and Noveember 2000. What happened to “the last two years of his term?” That post does not support your claim. They DO, however, make mention of “38 quarters and 114 months of growth. ”
And hey, Chuck, I know they’re no Newsmax or Free Republic, but you might be interestes in reading what the Federal Reserve Board had to say about the robustly growing economy in the year 2000.
Let me ask you, Chuck. Do you believe that oil prices below $30 a barrel caused a recession in March 2001?
And are you also saying that a Freeper poster is right and the NBER is wrong?
I think if you want to identify voting trends, you need a broad spectrum aproach, not a single non partisan vote on a tax issue.
Regardless of whether KVI and the GOP supported this, it still resonated with people on individual levels.
For what it is worth, the 912 initiative, to me, was a huge success, because it took arbitrary government decisions and remanded them back to the electorate for validation.
The Legislature did an end run around the people with the emergency clause, and the initiative restored their rights.
The people have thus spoken, and democracy was well served. Regardless of how you voted, having the ability to vote for it at all was the real victory.
I just hope the projects it funds are handled well and alot of good comes from it.
Actually the drunken sailors were the County Council that funded their pet projects, and forcing a Sims veto of many of them.
I am still reading the details, but I hope its a sign of some manner of fiscal moderation and accountability in King County.
That’s funny, Sven @ 50, I would think that rather than just hoping that “the projects it funds are handled well,” you’d favor each and every one of the upcoming “arbitrary government decisions” regarding project priority, contractor choice, what types of erasers their perncils should have, and so on and remand them “back to the electorate for validation.” After all, we can’t trust our government at all, can we? Better hold a statewide election to see if 522 needs a new shoulder.
After all, what’s the state constitution and representative government all about if not votes of the people on every complex specialty issue?
Sven
Re: the “emergency” designation…
The Legislature used the clause to exempt the gas tax bill from referendum, as our state constitution provides for “…such laws as may be necessary for …support of the state government and its existing public institutions.” It’s within their constitutional power to use this clause and no tradition or precedent was broken by its use. On top of that, I understand that the so-called “emergency clause” makes the legislation take effect sooner.
I guess don’t really get all the outrage over state business as usual.
Daddy @ 53
I wanted a vote on the measure. My needs were satisfied, because I believe in the process. The people deliberated and have spoken. I will maintain optimism that the process will do some good, and not be a joke like the light rail or the monorail. Its a slim hope, but I am trying to be positive.
As to the vote on everything, I never implied that. I was upset at the sleight of hand that took place in the legislature when they removed the I-601 2/3 majority for tax hikes, using the emergency vote to bypass a 90 waiting period, and also shiledling themselves from referrendum that removal, then used the emergency clause again to pass the gas hike (among other things), again with no referendum.
I hope someday more people wake up and see that the legislature had subverted the will of the people.
Let them do their job, as our representatives, but don’t deliberately take away the people power of referendum, or take a people’s initiative and think you can gut it without some anger.
It was a misuse of power and procedure.
Here are some more examples of *emergencies*:
SB 5034 – Amending Initiative 134 to allow unions and corporations to make campaign contributions in excess of original limits adopted.
HB 2221 – Exempting canning, preserving, freezing, processing, or dehydrating fresh fruits and vegetables from business and occupation tax.
SB 5274 – Implementing a state-registered real estate appraiser trainee classification.
SB 5951 – Exempting certain information held by the Horse Racing Commission from public records disclosure
SB 5952 – Exempting trams used for transporting people to and from parking lots to horse race facilities from vehicle licensing.
HB 1003 – Allowing off-road vehicles (ORVs) to be used on
nonhighway roads when authorized and exempting ORVs operating on nonhighway roads from vehicle licensing, equipment and lighting requirements.
All higly critical emergencies.
The I 912 process reopened discussion and reminded everyone that the people still have a measure of control.
I think all politicians need that reminder to reinforce their obligations to their constituants.
And maybe it has:
Sen. Tim Sheldon (D-35): “In my 15 years in the Washington State Legislature, I’ve seen the emergency clause language terribly misused. For example, building a professional sport stadium can’t possibly be an emergency. However, possible legislation regarding a flu pandemic is clearly an emergency. My observation is that emergency clauses are clearly used for political purposes nearly every time and should be reformed to reflect the views of the framers of our state Constitution.”
This is from a press release referencing a survey of legislatures, concerning a proposed constitutional ammedment to modify the emergency clause.
We shall see.
Daddy,
Anothe reply in the filter, but one point.
Business as usual=sucks.
Sven
Re: your emergency clause examples. Accepting for the sake of argument your acccuracy, some of those appear to be good ideas that I think should be enacted, and as such I don’t care if they come under the emergency clause. Some of those (granting that I am not conversant with the issues) look like bad ideas that I would not like to see enacted even if NOT under the emergency clause. IF the emergency clause blocked a reasoned objection that otherwise would have gone forward, which you do not indicate, I think that would be wrong.
However, it is tough, if not impossible to craft a rule that cannot be used in creative and unforeseen ways. I would not object to a higher standard.
As for “business as usual,” I realized when I read that line that I had left an opening. Damn.
Daddy,
lol
I guess my point, and my disgust, is that our leaders in Oly are playing the home version of the Washington DC game of politics.
I as a local voter demand better. I think the games and misuse of the emergency clause illustrate my case, and hope that some restrictions in its use will be done.
I am not optimistic though, as they are a self policing agency for the most part.
Thats whY i see teh I912 defeat as an overall victory, because it does remind them that sometimes, the people will wake up and look away from the latest episode of Judge Judy, get involved and hold them accountable. We need more of those messages, until they finally return to being representative.
And as usual, no stats on the rest of the State. As usual, Seattle and KC seem to think they’re the center of the universe. I’m shocked.
Well, mark1, KC IS the center of gravity of the state.