Irons makes his decision - he'll oppose Initiative 912

Much to Stefan Sharkansky and Tim Eyman's dismay, the Republican candidate for King County Executive, David Irons, has apparently decided he'll oppose Initiative 912.

How do we know this?

Rumors began swirling after the Alki Foundation last week issued its "recommendations" for 2005 races. For those of you who don't know, the Alki Foundation is an affiliate of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. Its membership includes regional giants such as Microsoft and Boeing. One of its goals is to evaluate candidates to see who is the most business-friendly.

Four years ago, the Alki Foundation recommended Ron Sims for King County Executive. But this year, they went with David Irons.

The word is that David Irons, in order to earn the Alki Foundation's "recommendation", assured the board members he opposed Initiative 912.

Initiative 912 is a big deal to the regional business community, as evidenced by this quote from Joel Connelly's recent column on the Alki recommendations:

Alki refused to make a recommendation in the County Council contest in which two Republican incumbents, Steve Hammond and Reagan Dunn, are duking it out for their party's nomination.

The gasoline tax rollback was the reason.

"These gentlemen support Initiative 912. Transportation improvement is such a central issue to the business community that we decided to make no recommendation," [Randy] Pepple [CEO of Rockey Hill & Knowlton, as well as Alki's chairman] said.

If Initiative 912 is such a big deal to the business community that they won't recommend either of the Republicans in the King County 9th District race, then how did David Irons get their recommendation without assuring them he opposed Initiative 912?

Ron Sims has already come out against I-912 - and the Alki board members knew it. So how did Irons get the recommendation? It's simple. Irons must have told the Alki board members he opposes Initiative 912.

Fellow blogger David Goldstein has also blogged on the rumors:

While Irons has repeatedly refused to take a public position on I-912, my sources tell me that he has been much more talkative in private. This is a very important issue to Alki members, and to earn their endorsement Irons apparently told them what they wanted to hear.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that Irons hasn’t been privately telling I-912 supporters what they want to hear, too.

Irons can easily settle any lingering doubts over where he stands on the initiative, simply by clearly stating his position the way Ron Sims did. Indeed, he must come clean. I-912 could have a huge impact on the economy of the county he wants to govern, so reporters owe it to their readers to keep Irons feet to the fire, by bluntly asking him where he stands, and at every opportunity.

There can be no rest for Irons until he publicly declares what his position is. He can't have it both ways. Republicans are always trying to have it both ways - when the business community and their conservative base disagree, high profile Republicans simply try to skirt the issue, as Dino Rossi did last year, as Irons is trying to do now, and as Mike McGavick will probably try to do next year.

Irons cannot be allowed to skirt the issue and not speak openly about it. The public needs to know what his position is. It appears that he's already made his decision - he'll oppose Initiative 912 - but he needs to declare that openly.
If he won't, the media must be aggressive in asking that question until Irons responds.