State House passes NPI-supported bill to make ballot advertising more transparent

Good news out of the Capi­tol Cam­pus this after­noon: Wash­ing­ton’s House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives has just approved a bill spon­sored by Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Andy Bil­lig that makes it eas­i­er for vot­ers to find out who’s try­ing to influ­ence them to vote in favor of (or in oppo­si­tion to) bal­lot mea­sures. I tes­ti­fied in favor of this bill before the State Gov­ern­ment & Trib­al Affairs Com­mit­tee a cou­ple weeks ago, along with NPI board mem­ber Steve Zemke and NPI con­trib­u­tor Steve Breaux.

The vote was sev­en­ty-five to twen­ty-two. The roll call was as follows:

Vot­ing Yea:  Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Ahern, Ander­son, Angel, Apple­ton, Arm­strong, Asay, Bai­ley, Bil­lig, Blake, Car­lyle, Clib­born, Cody, Darneille, Dick­er­son, Dun­shee, Eddy, Finn, Fitzgib­bon, Good­man, Green, Haigh, Hansen, Har­grove, Har­ris, Hasegawa, Hope, Hud­gins, Hunt, Hunter, Hurst, Jink­ins, John­son, Kagi, Kel­ley, Ken­ney, Kir­by, Laden­burg, Liias, Lyt­ton, Maxwell, McCoy, Milos­cia, Moeller, Mor­ris, Moscoso, Orcutt, Orms­by, Orwall, Park­er, Ped­er­sen, Pet­ti­grew, Pol­let, Prob­st, Reyk­dal, Rivers, Roberts, Rodne, Ross, Ryu, San­tos, Seaquist, Sells, Smith, Springer, Stan­ford, Sul­li­van, Takko, Tharinger, Upthe­grove, Van De Wege, Walsh, War­nick, Wylie, Zeiger, and Mr. Speak­er [Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chopp]

Vot­ing Nay:  Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Alexan­der, Buys, Chan­dler, Con­dot­ta, Crouse, Dahlquist, Dammeier, DeBolt, Fagan, Haler, Hin­kle, Klip­pert, Kretz, Kris­tiansen, McCune, Over­street, Pear­son, Schmick, Shea, Short, Tay­lor, and Wilcox

Excused:  Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Nealey

A num­ber of Repub­li­cans crossed over to join all of the House­’s Democ­rats in vot­ing aye on the bill. How­ev­er, the four Repub­li­cans on the House­’s State Gov­ern­ment Com­mit­tee — who con­ferred with Muk­il­teo ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer Tim Eyman pri­or to oppos­ing the bill in exec­u­tive ses­sion — all vot­ed no (Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Tay­lor, Over­street, Con­dot­ta, and Alexander).

Tay­lor and Over­street each offered mul­ti­ple amend­ments to the bill on the House floor (most would have weak­ened the bill), but they were all rejected.

Cur­rent state law requires that all writ­ten polit­i­cal adver­tis­ing (whether per­tain­ing to can­di­dates or bal­lot propo­si­tions) include the name and address of the per­son or enti­ty pay­ing for the adver­tis­ing. Radio and tele­vi­sion adver­tis­ing must include the spon­sor’s name. The use of made-up or assumed names is prohibited.

HB 2499 requires that any adver­tis­ing for or against bal­lot mea­sures cost­ing more than a thou­sand dol­lars must iden­ti­fy the top five con­trib­u­tors of the polit­i­cal com­mit­tee that paid for the advertising.

It’s not an ambi­tious bill, but it’s impor­tant nonetheless.

HB 2499 now heads to the state Sen­ate. After it receives its first read­ing there, it will like­ly be referred to the Gov­ern­ment Oper­a­tions, Trib­al Rela­tions, & Elec­tions Com­mit­tee, which is cur­rent­ly chaired by Sen­a­tor Craig Pridemore.