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A couple election measures, a couple election lessons
Posted
at
9:30 am
by Jerry Cornfield
Isn't it nice to wake up in the morning and see the election results are the same as they were when you went to bed?
That's the joy of mail-in balloting. The pain, if you're involved in a close race, is waiting out days of counting to get that final result.
Here a few random thoughts about the statewide measures based on the first batch of ballots.
Referendum 71 may wind up giving folks in all corners of the political spectrum something to crow about although there can only be one winner.
Those on the side of Approve 71 are smiling broadly as voters are narrowly affirming the law granting gay couples the same rights and responsibilities of married couples, with the exception of marriage.
Looking at the breakdown of voting, it is another case of King County, with its masses of progressives and liberals, setting the state's course on a major social policy.
According to Rep. Marko Liias, if this trend holds, it will be the first time in the country that voters will be approving an expansion of rights for gay couples.
(In all those other electoral battles you've read about – including Maine – voters are repealing or rejecting rights for gay and lesbian couples, or, in the case of California imposing a barrier to them getting legally married.)
Those in the Reject R-71 movement can take heart in knowing they've awakened conservatives from their nearly three-year long electoral slumber. (The state Republican Party will be sending thank-you notes to leaders and lawyers for Protect Marriage Washington.)
They may not add up to enough votes in this fight but the energized turnout of conservatives surely played a role in several upsets, from the unseating of an incumbent mayor in Monroe to the dislodging of Democratic state Rep. Laura Grant of Walla Walla.
Moreover, this fight was not about legalizing marriage for same-sex couples and the results are close. When it is about marriage for gay and lesbian couples, well….
The pressing political question is whether conservatives who showed up Tuesday will stick around for the 2010 elections?
Initiative 1033 appears headed to defeat, which would seem to demonstrate that money talks and complicated anti-government initiatives walk.
Tim Eyman should know by now that if he can't fit his idea on a bumper sticker, it's not likely to pass: $30 car tab, pass; performance audits, pass; property tax limits, pass.
He overshot his goal in Initiative 1033. Trying to limit revenue growth in every city and county as well as the state was doing so much to so many it gave too many people from too many places a reason to oppose it.
It wasn't simple enough and a few probably wondered why only people who owned property would benefit.
Eyman can take heart in knowing that it's not cheap to beat one of his initiatives.
In 2009 the cost is $3.5 million.
That's what opponents raised. Assuming it all gets spent, the No on 1033 campaign will be the fifth most expensive campaign conducted against a statewide initiative.
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