The reports are in, and the Voters Education Committee’s sole financial backer turns out to be the United States Chamber of Commerce… to the tune of $1.5 million!
Washington state is losing control of its electoral process. First we have Canadian and Nevadan gambling conglomerates buying Initiative 892 onto the ballot, and now we have a DC based organization secretly spending $1.5 million to influence the Democratic primary for Attorney General.
This is both frightening and sad.
I’ll have more on this later after I do a little research.
Comparing a Canadian and Nevada corporation\’s contributions to Initiative 892 with what was done by the Voters Education Committee is frankly ridicules.
Your portrayal of two corporations who are involved in a legal enterprise and have never made any attempt to hide their contributions to help get Initiative 892 on the ballot with a PAC that clearly has made clear attempts to violate state law from the very outset gives me the impression you\’ve become so blinded you can\’t see reality. Everyone\’s has a bias but your comparison of these two situations is just plain laughable.
If you have proof that these two companies have tried to hide or have hidden contributions to any PAC, cause or candidate I wish you\’d share your information.
If you want to talk contributions how about what is being spent to defeat I-892. 2 local tribes (Muckleshoot and Tulaip) wrote checks totaling 1.8 million dollars in ONE DAY to \”No on I-892\” PAC. Comapre this to what was raised by all these supposed conglomerates. 2 tribal casinos spent likely 4 times more in ONE DAY than I-892 spent in 3 months.
\”No on I-892\” then wrote a check for 1,750,000.00 to buy advertising. Seems two local tribes have deeper pockets than the entire United States Chamber of Commerce. Better hope they don\’t decide to weight in on any issue near and dear to yuor heart.
Well, all I meant to imply was that large sums of out-of-state money are now being used to influence local elections… though I can see how the context in which my comment appeared my cause you to infer that I was somehow equating the legality of the I-892 money to the VEC money. I was not.
And on the subject of bias — I am clearly and unambiguously biased — which is why I put so much effort into citing my sources and documenting the facts on which I base my opinions. I practice a much more reasoned and honest methodology than you have any right to expect from a blog named \”HorsesAss.org\”.
Another difference between these two situations is spending money to get an initiative on the ballot is one thing, spending money to spread false and/or misleading information to trash someone or some issue is something else.
What a group spends is no guarantee of getting on the ballot and even a spot on the ballot doesn\’t mean it will be successful. At the end of the day each voter will decide if this is something they believe in.
In most cases, even with all the hype about groups spending money to get on the ballot there\’s still plenty of time for voters to educate themselves before they vote.
PACs on the other hand that take millions and spend it to trash an initiative, issue or candidate and plan it so voters are given
deceptive or incorrect information with no time to correct the disinformation should be what you should really take issue with.
Spending money to get an issue on the ballot seems a far cry from spending money to purposefully deceive voters to vote against a candidate or initiative.
It’s an issue of personal liberty.