Tim Eyman's government limiting I-1033, Nov. 2009
Tim Eyman's government limiting I-960, Nov. 2007
I’m going to spend a lot of time over the next few days talking about trends, and what that predicts for the handful of close races in today’s election, but the maps above clearly illustrate what I believe to be one of the most gratifying trends demonstrated by voters today.
The maps above show the county-by-county vote for initiatives 1033 and 960 respectively, the green representing counties that voted yes, and the yellow counties that voted no. I-960 passed in 34 of 39 counties back in November of 2007, by a statewide margin of 51.2% to 48.8%. I-1033 is on its way to losing in 21 counties by a statewide margin of 55.5% to 45.5%.
Both initiatives professed to limit government spending. Both initiatives ran during off-year elections. Both initiatives were sponsored by Tim Eyman.
As I wrote earlier today:
One would think this same libertarian streak would bode well for Tim Eyman’s government drowning I-1033, but this is where personal self-interest comes into play. For as much as rural Washingtonians bask in their self-image of rugged independence, their limited tax base leaves them more dependent on state tax dollars than more populous regions of the state, and thus their communities would be disproportionately impacted by the inevitable cuts in state spending I-1033 would necessitate over time.
Already struggling to meet basic needs, I-1033 has received little support from local elected officials, even Republicans. And local voters are swayed by their local leaders.
Democrats in general and progressives in particular need to take advantage of the awareness that Eyman helped create in traditionally government-hostile areas of the state, about the central role that government plays in improving our quality of life.
Thank god.
Yay!
McGinn’s up by a hair.
And it’s O’Brien for the win
Council Position No. 8
Mike O’Brien 44040 57.91%
Robert Rosencrantz 31835 41.86%
Write-in 180 0.24%
Wow, Referendum 71 got slaughtered in Spokane County.
I thought it would lose over there, but not by that much.
Woo-hoo, way to go Pierce County! 15.72% percent of you bothered to vote. How unbelievably lame.
A night when Eyman loses is a very good night.
Eat it demagogue!
Eat it hustler!
I sure like seeing that yellow on the other side of the Cascade divide. The way this state is trending, pretty soon all of our state’s wingnuts are going to have to figure out whether they can fit into Chelan County.
Clark county will always have some….
A note before the wingnuts jump on your comment about, “the central role that government plays in improving our quality of life”.
I’m and old school midwest Democrat. Let’s be clear. The government isn’t some “thing”, it’s us. We’re the government. It’s just elected citizens agreeing to do work for the common good. It CAN be used to improve our lives. Where conservatives (god help me) have a point, is that it’s not an automatically good (or bad) thing and doesn’t fix all problems. It’s just a tool. It CAN help. And like any big bureaucracy, it can get in the way. So even the Democrats should always be on guard for ‘silly’ government and always trying to make it more efficient and response to the needs of the people, and not just an “employer” or thing to support abstractly.
That being said. Will Tim Eyman now just sit down and shut the hell up. He’s the opposite problem. He’s OPPOSING government not out of any constructive point, but just to make a career/job of it. It’s getting annoying.
…with Pinky on the back seat in a leather bikini and a feather boa.
A major reason for the different results is that voters saw how much I-1033 really sucks. I-960 is much more manageable and much less drastic.
Michael, all of these results are very, very partial.
King reported under 24% turnout, but they have another 10-11% in-hand and not yet verified (much less tallied). And they’ll probably receive another 20% or more over the next week or so. King’s turnout will likely reach the 56% that was anticipated.
Pierce could end up at 40-50% before it’s over.
Eat it Eyman. If it’s Eyman, vote no.
Great analysis Goldy, especially the tension between the libertarian streak vs. the self interest.
And @9 Alki Postings
Very excellent point. We all must remember that. Of, for and by the people. I think problem is not that government is bad per se. But entrenched government can and most often leads to silly government. The thing that makes our system work is institutionalized revolution. I really do think Thomas Jefferson was correct when he said:
And so far we have been about right on schedule in this country. The “Reagan Revolution” lasted about 25 years. About a decade past its usefulness. An “Obama Revolution” will be good for about 15 years and then it will be time for another change. And of course there are plenty of mini cycles.
Perhaps every 20 years there should be a special election where every office in the federal government is up for election. An opportunity to throw everybody out. Just on principle. But only every 20 years. Stick to normal midterms in the intervening years.
Gordon @14:
That’s the kind of simplistic thinking that plays well in Ritzville, but from a practical standpoint is disastrous.
I know we all hate bureaucracy, but it does result in some continuity and that has value. Most of the problems our government has to tackle cannot be solved overnight, or in one year, or even in 20 years. It takes a consistent, reasoned approach that can change if necessary.
At this point, the Left controls the helm in both Washingtons. Hence, the Right hates government and defines it as the problem.
When the Right controlled the government, those same folks that now hate government lectured us on patriotism, decorum and duty to obey our elected officials. They even went so far as to institute massive invasions of privacy, suspend habeus corpus, and start a senseless war that cost far more than any health care reform.
Bottom line is, they are perfectly willing to spend enormous amounts of money killing foreigners, spying on there own citizens, and lining the pockets of their pet vendors like Halliburton and Blackwater, but not one dime to the benefit of our citizenry.
Go figure.
Eyeman’s blaming government workers and contractors voting against his initiative on the loss. Another typical attempt by Eyeman to blame somebody else for the fact that it was a really, really, bad idea.
I’ll have to admit, this one worried me. The problem was that it didn’t immediately seem like such a bad idea if you wanted to control government spending, didn’t have an opinion on Eyman generally, and didn’t educate yourself as to the effects of the initiative. Kudos to the “No on I-1033” campaign for educating the people. It helped that they got even the mainstream media labelling this as “Eyeman’s I-1033.”
The question is, when will Dunmire quit funding Eyman? My guess is never, because he likes having lines of hopefull Republicans visit him, pay homage and kowtow to him, and beg for his blessings upon their campaign. Eyman seems to do this particularly well, so he gets rewarded accordingly.
@16 I wonder whose money Dunmire is spending?
By the way, I’ve seen national maps which adjust the map to show for differences in population. Anybody know how this is done? It would be interesting to see a Washington State map showing such a population adjustment, then with I-1033 results displayed.
Well. like, uhm, what did you expect?
That he has morals and good sense and graciousness?
Eyeman fails again…..and what does he do?
Says he will have another ballot measure for next year.
Luckily, he is wearing out his welcome in this state. A has-been who can’t explain why we should cut government services further when they are already at the bare bones.
Eyeman also does not care about public education – this initiative would have destroyed K-12 schools abd higher ed.
The last thing we need to do to be competitive is to cut education.
The conservative mind-set is so dogmatic that it fails to see the forest through the trees.
Just as Boeing chose to move to SC – when their major problems on the 787 are coordination, logistics, inferior out-sorced parts, inferior non-union parts and too many different engineers working on one problem…they decide to compound these problems with two separate assembly lines…how stupid!
The simplistic less taxes mantra doesn’t vut it – most people will have reduced property taxes anyways in the next few years since home prices have dropped. the state is in a record budget deficit and Eyeman wants to cut additional revenue and lock in the current low?
How stupid again!
Maybe next year Timmah can convince Sarah Palin to campaign for his new version of toilet paper. She seems to wield major endorsement power.
There will always be people backing timmeh if only to piss off he rest of us. Disagree?
Whew.
I think it’s apropos to this thread that in Maine, while the righties are no doubt gleefully dancing on the grave of gay marriage, that state’s voters not only overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana, but soundly rejected a couple of decidedly Eyman-esque tax “reform” referenda.
It would seem that Tim’s act is laying an egg on more than one stage.
Take a look at Eyman’s record over at Permanent Defense. In 10 years of Eyman initiatives, his record is 2 out of 14. Most businessmen are smart enough not to keep pouring money into a toxic sinkhole, but not Dunmire.
http://www.permanentdefense.or.....chart.html
24. ArtFart spews:
I think it’s apropos to this thread that in Maine, while the righties are no doubt gleefully dancing on the grave of gay marriage, that state’s voters not only overwhelmingly approved medical marijuana, but soundly rejected a couple of decidedly Eyman-esque tax “reform” referenda.
It would seem that Tim’s act is laying an egg on more than one stage.
Yes, but talk about cognitive dissonance…..
Have you noticed from recent pictures that Eyman is beginning to suffer from the sedentary man’s disease: Fat Head Syndrome.
The only melon that size on a man that young would be at a soft rock radio station (‘Nothing but loooooooooooooooove songs, 24 endless hours per day!’).
Ref 71 and Init 1033 could have hurt us by bringing the Right to the polling booth and voting against Laura Grant in Eastern Washington.
“…the central role that government plays in improving our quality of life.”
“Central government” in a state? I thought “central government” was a reserved term used to describe the big and pompous federal government, not our little Podunk state government here in WA. Government is not the answer to all problems.
R-71 and I-1033 may have hurt Hutchinson and other Republican candidates here on the west side of the state, it provided an impetus for Democrats here to turn out in an off-year election.
re 29: You sound like an old right-wing crank.
The people around you probably mollify you just so you won’t scream at the TV set.
Can you do the same with the gay partnership bill #71? I think it would be interesting.