The Washington Poll has released a new poll of Washington state voters on issues, initiatives in this election, as well as candidates in next year’s election.
The poll surveyed 938 registered voters from Oct 10th through Oct 30th, and has a margin of error of 3.2%
Here is the summary:
- The economy and recession is the number one issue (26%) in how voters will be making voting decisions. Republicans better hope to hell the economy makes a very slow recovery. (And they are doing their damnedest to sabotage any recovery attempts.)
- Initiative I-1183 is the Costco initiative to privatize state liquor stores (and related things). The poll found 50% would vote yes, and 43% would vote no, with 7% undecided.
- Initiative I-1125 is the Tim Eyman, Kemper Freeman-funded initiative that would severely restrict tolling and, essentially, shut down light rail to the east side (Bellevue and Redmond). The poll found 41% would vote yes and 40% would vote no, with 19% undecided.
- If a same sex marriage law was passed in Washington and it ended up as a referendum, 55% would support the law, 38% would vote to overturn the law, and 7% aren’t sure.
- By 64% to 24%, Washington voters approve of eliminating “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” in the military.
- By 48% to 42%, Washington voters approve of legalizing and regulating marijuana.
- For the 2012 gubernatorial race, 45% would vote for Washington AG Rob McKenna (R) and 38% would vote for Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA-01), with 18% still undecided.
- For the 2012 presidential race, 54% would vote for President Barack Obama and 41% would vote for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, with 5% undecided.
- In another 2012 presidential race match-up, 50% would vote for Obama and 41% for former governor Mitt Romney, with 9% undecided.
- Voters tend to disapprove of the 2010 health care reform law by 47% to 37%.
- Only 24% of Washington voters want to fix the projected budget deficit by spending cuts alone. By contrast, 71% want at least some revenue increases.
- Washingtonians trust “Obama and Democrats” (41%) more than Republicans (37%) to “make the right decisions and improve our economic conditions.”
Here is what I take away from this poll:
- Get ready to pay a lot more for your liquor. Seriously, the proponents of I-1183 make claims that cannot be simultaneously sustained by the laws of physics. They suggest Washington will earn additional revenue, but liquor sales will not increase, AND, there is an assumption that Costco and friends will be earning profits (or why bother?). The math can only work out to increased prices (but perhaps with better selection).
- The big drama of the 2011 election is whether or not Tim “Biggest Lie of my Life” Eyman, and his rich friend will succeed in further paralyzing the maintenance and future development of Washington’s transportation infrastructure. Maybe Or maybe Washington voters will come to their freaking senses!
- HELLOOOOOOOO Gov. McKenna! Fortunately, that race is a long ways away!
- Hardly a day goes by without another absurd breaking news piece from the Republican primary asylum. Washington state voters are “on to” it—they see through the farce that is the current field of Republican presidential contenders.
- Same-sex marriage is on the horizon in Washington
- The legislature and Governor will ignore the will of the voters and focus on an “all cuts” budget. (Yes…I am being cynical here.)
More poll results will be released soon.
Show your work.
I suspect Costco and most large retailers would be happy with a 10 to 15% profit on liquor sales. Add that to the new 27% tax, and you are lower than the current 52% state mark up. So I would expect liquor prices to go down by around 10% or so.
Well on the state budget cuts, here’s Gregoire’s proposals. Glad to see she is starting to GET IT as she gets ready to leave.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ts28m.html
No special mention of the albatros “Obamacare” Bill, but it is failing in every aspect of it’s deranged existance. Friday the 13th woud be better for your health than this monster.
Happy Halloween all
@3
Do you want to go back and get rid of the minimal improvements we have made? Really?
If you don’t like Health Care reform, get out there and propose something better and let’s discuss it in town halls and enact the good stuff.
You are just wasting all of our time ranting that it’s not working the way you want.
With 1800 waivers to political and union cronies, 4 million will also loose their company sponsored medical plans as companies toss them on this pitiful plan, I won’t need to do anything except vote for someone who will toss the whole SOB out.
That is the ONLY correct solution to Obamacare
The ONLY solution to the health care “problem” is SINGLE PAYOR like the rest of the cicvilzed world.
This idiot asshole probably believes in the Easter Bunny (sorry Rog…), the Great Pumpkin, the Second Coming of teh jesus, Tim “juicebox jesus” Tebow and the Congressional Republican “Jobs Program”.
Darryl, you wrote:
It’s not the laws of physics that apply here — the laws of economics and mathematics are why 1183 works.
– Cut $100 million a year from the state budget that the WSLCB spends to run stores and the distribution center + eliminate the state’s 52% markup = savings.
– Increased competition at all levels of sales (wholesale and retail) puts downward pressure on prices. (That’s ECON 101.)
Seriously, the NO campaign has been screaming like a crazed banshee for weeks to distract voters from the fact that the reason they’re fighting it has everything to do with guarding the sweetheart deal that out-of-state liquor sellers have with the state monopoly.
But the kicker is that with Gov. Gregoire threatening last week to take back all the revenue the WSLCB currently shares with local govts (a disproportionate amount of those funds go to pay for police, fire, etc.) I think that the union folks who were told they had to parrot the party line against 1183 are feeling a little betrayed about now.
The YES campaign has been screaming like a crazed banshee trying to hide the fact they will be making money like corporate thieves. Why else would Costco pour 22 million into the campaign?
If it turns out the State ends up loosing money on I-1183, I’m sure Costco will be more than happy to sponsor another initiative to raise the liquor tax rate to make up for the loss.
Spoken like a bought and paid for corporate shill.
Nice job…you earned your money!
Too bad it’s one gigantic steaming stinking load of bought and paid for SHIT.
@8 “Cut $100 million a year from the state budget that the WSLCB spends to run stores and the distribution center”
And how does the private sector not have the same costs?
“+ eliminate the state’s 52% markup = savings.”
And also = equivalent loss of state revenues that have to be made up either with cuts in public services or higher taxes elsewhere.
“Increased competition at all levels of sales (wholesale and retail) puts downward pressure on prices. (That’s ECON 101.)”
Which results in higher liquor consumption = higher health and social costs.
To say that putting cheaper liquor on retail shelves at every street corner will have unintended consequences is an understatement.
@9
ummm….so what if costco makes money? why is that a problem?
@11
notice how Lee Rujax Rosenberg cant refute the argument? He just flails about throwing insults, but cant back up or refute any numbers at all.
this is exactly whey Lee Rujax Rosenberg is a failure at the game of life…at least he has accepted his position as below average in our society.
Yo Lee Rujax Rosenberg, when you gonna take your banjo and strum some happy songs for the losers now occupying Seattle Central CC?
what a loser….
funny…
the same people who want the state to have a tight monopoly on booze, are also the same ones who want private pot stores to be legal everywhere…
hypocrisy…its whats for dinner…
15 – Another brainless atrocity…
Liquor stores are for people who like strong alcoholic beverages..
Medical marijauna dispensaries are for people who need medical marijauna for their glaucoma, chemotherapy side effects and other maladies
Little bit of a difference there moron.
Perhaps one day people who enjoy marijauna for its intoxicating effects can one day purchase mj in state liquor stores.. That way the distribution can be regulated. Access to minors minimized, taxes collected, etc.
I used to live in a state where’s there an unsightly liquor store on just about every freaking block. You read about gun violence and robberies at these places in the news just about every day.
I personally like the liquor laws in this state.
Right wing idiocy.. Must be something in the water.
The State loses money on every damn thing they touch, where have you been?
How many liquor store robberies are there in this state compared to CA?? How much magnet crime associated with liquor stores in this state? How much minor age alchohol use?
Right wing obtuseness – must be something in the water..
The state has to cut at least another 1.5 BILLION with a capital B out of its current budget because of the Obomoconomy, it is far past its time to privatize liquor sales, and it WILL pass.
1. Get the State out of retail business.
2. Lease the liquor stores out to a private industry
Take your choice,
19 – I choose NO on I-1183..
Right wing obtuseness – must be something in the moonshine..
YLB you will be in the minority on this one, as well as you may well have mcCenna as your governor. spending sprees do have their consequences.
Happy Halloween
http://content.usatoday.com/co.....-economy/1
21 – So be it…
After WWII the debt well exceeded the GDP. Japan’s debt is over twice its GDP..
We owe most (60 percent IIRC) of our federal debt to ourselves.
Too bad for you that you’re such a frightened person whose life is so guided by right wing propaganda.
It’s not just me who sees this. Why do you think the states revenues are plummeting billions each time they take a read. Because people are not purchasing. Because they are either unemployeed, or worried about being unemployeed. I refuse to purchase almost anything in this state, because of it’s waste.
And if you think your state government pensions are secure, youu better read up on the Billions of unfunded pension mandates in the states, the next big shoe to fall on public employees
Yawwwn.. Seeking safety in numbers.. Right wing tribalism..
Why does ND have a billion in the bank? Economic growth silly.. Jumpstart the economy and the trend reverses.. Your worst nightmare is Boeing finally getting its act together..
We have 2000 less employees in this state than 10 years ago with a much larger population.. Your anti-WA State hysteria is just that.
See 10
And who in the private sector gets the (supposedly funded) cushy life time pensions that the State workers think are coming to them?
It’s amazing how Obama managed to crash the economy starting with the Enron scandal back in 2001.
2000 less state employees… to be more precise.
zzzzZZZZzzz.. Move.. Don’t let the door hit you you know where…
All the more reason to have an income tax..
The ones whose taxes you most want to cut???
Pensions, for the mentally challenged, are sometimes part of the compensation package an employee is paid in exchange for his/her labor.
Sometimes, Sometimes in the past! Go out in the private sector and find any benefit package even close to what the State is offering, and BTW continuing to diminish and cut since it is unsustainable in this economy
You cannot spend like this idiot in Chief is spending without Greece Like results, which you are already seeing in the budgets of this state and nearly every other.
You cannot borrow 42 cents of every dollar spent withought severe consequences..Period!
@33
Who needs a pension when you’ve got a golden parachute! What’s his head spent a year tanking HP, got fired, and still got and $11,000,000 payout. $23,000,000 for one years work.
And people wonder why there’s protests…
@33 Okay, so I spent my whole career working for the state, and getting paid about 1/10th (or less) of what a corporate lawyer makes, and my pension is about $30k a year. And that makes me responsible for this country’s debt problems?
P.S., that pension is my money — they took it out of my pay. If you think state jobs are so damned cushy I’d to see you try supporting a family on take-home pay of $2,500 a month, which is what a lot of state workers get.
@35 “$23,000,000 for one years work.”
I started working for the state (as a lawyer) for $1,100 a month gross. At that pay rate I would have to work 1,742 years to make $23m.
I’m getting tired of the resentful attitude wingnuts have toward public workers’ measly pay. If they don’t like what they’re making in the private sector, they can sign up for one of those cushy state jobs as easily as the rest of us can.
But I have another theory about why they don’t work for the government and are envious of those who do: They’re the ones who didn’t survive the government’s competitive hiring system.
@27 Actually Washington’s state pensions are fully funded except for PERS 1, and the reason PERS 1 isn’t is because dishonest politicians diverted the state’s employer contributions to other purposes — the workers paid their contributions in full.
Washington is one of only two or three states whose pension systems, in the aggregate, are 100% funded, and Washington regularly gets top marks for its pension management from such publications as the WSJ — so if you’re looking for an issue, pal, you’d better choose another one.
@32 Right — in the private sector, you get a smaller pension, but a bigger salary. Much bigger. You don’t see public workers living in million-dollar homes or driving Porsches. Plush lifestyles are exclusively enjoyed by for-profit private-sector banksters, brokers, business owners, celebrities and sports stars, and executives.
35
Show me a worker that got an 11 million chute and we can talk, they just get pink slips and a kick in the ass. And oh by the way if they don’t have 30 yrs screwed out of their pensions.
38
So tell me about the highest paid people in King County, there are some 76 pages of people who make more than 100k per year, doing ordinary work that contractors get paid 60k for, without pensions, holidays, sick pay, etc etc etc. I’m sure the County workers get 100k+ per year for life, and probably get more. The highest paid aren’t mayor types they are people who pad their pensions with massive overtime, double dipping, etc etc.
Good luck in this economy keeping all that fluff going strong
Roger Rabbit shut up!
How come it’s ok for CEOs to negotiate HUGE severance packages for when they quit working but it’s not ok to negotiate pensions for when workers quit working?
Wow what a genius you are. Tell me, what’s the yield on a 10 year treasury vs. a 10 year Greek bond???
Huh??? The market has spoken you brainwashed dullard. There’s no comparison..
Heard of the cat food commission? The super committee?? It’s on the radar and a compromise will be worked out.
It will be ugly. The poor will be poorer but the rich will take a little haircut about which their lackeys will whine to the heavens about how it will destroy the economy just like when Clinton did his little tax hike..
@16
ya, because the legalize pot crowd really care about medical weed stores…NOT. Its all about making pot legal everywhere and being able to sell it to anyone.
you really think they are going to settle for buying pot at a state store with its inflated prices?
I’ve already shown how lee and the other legalize weed crowd dont give a shit about cancer patients or medical weed…its all about getting high, as cheaply as possible, without getting busted by the man….end of story.
fuck, you are niave.
@26
hey dummy…costco’s profit is irrelevant.
the state is free to increase taxes on booze if they think they need to.
doesnt matter anyway, 1183 is probably going to pass…so get used to it.
how come cigarettes arent sold at state stores only?
hmm…………………………..
45 – More brainless word salad from the asshat troll.
I see you’re not “bored” yet..
Right wing idiocy. It’s in the water in “paradise”..
@1 etc…
Notice how idiot darwhyle never backed up his assertions or “showed his work”?
What tool he is…..no wonder he couldn’t make it in the real world….