NO on Tim Eyman's I-1366
NO on Tim Eyman's I-1366: Our Kids Shouldn't be Hostages to Bad Politics

With Labor Day 2015 now behind us, the tra­di­tion­al home stretch of the annu­al autumn cam­paign sea­son has begun. The Novem­ber 3rd gen­er­al elec­tion is less than two months away, and bal­lots will be mailed in about thir­ty-five days.

Unfor­tu­nate­ly, the Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court declined to issue an injunc­tion last Fri­day in Huff v. Wyman, which means Tim Eyman’s hostage-tak­ing Ini­tia­tive 1366 will be on the bal­lot. We had antic­i­pat­ed from the out­set of the case that the Court might not block I‑1366 (even though it is bla­tant­ly beyond the scope of the peo­ple’s ini­tia­tive pow­er), so we’ve con­tin­ued our coali­tion-build­ing efforts, in prepa­ra­tion for a bat­tle in the court of pub­lic opinion.

Amus­ing­ly, this morn­ing, Tim Eyman sent out anoth­er fundrais­ing appeal to his fol­low­ers in which he sneered, “Oppo­nents are despon­dent, dis­cour­aged, and down­cast.” I had to laugh when I read that.

Noth­ing could be fur­ther from the truth. The coali­tion opposed I‑1366 went to court not because we were afraid of los­ing, but because I‑1366 is so dan­ger­ous and destruc­tive that it need­ed to be fought on mul­ti­ple fronts.

Polling recent­ly con­duct­ed by Stu­art Elway shows I‑1366 start­ing out at under fifty per­cent, a bad place for an ini­tia­tive to be before an autumn campaign.

The Supreme Court may not have issued the injunc­tion we want­ed, but it did retain the case on appeal for a deci­sion on the mer­its. Tim Eyman has neglect­ed to men­tion that last Fri­day’s order won’t be the Court’s last word on this matter.

(Eyman has also neglect­ed to men­tion to his fol­low­ers that he’s been ordered to appear in court after hav­ing failed to prompt­ly turn over records sub­poe­naed by the Pub­lic Dis­clo­sure Com­mis­sion as part of its inves­ti­ga­tion into his I‑517 campaign.)

We at NPI are ener­gized about accel­er­at­ing our coali­tion-build­ing work. Over Labor Day week­end, we secured the sup­port of a num­ber of elect­ed offi­cials and can­di­dates for NO on I‑1366, adding to the list already in progress. Here’s the updat­ed list pub­lished to the coali­tion web­site on Mon­day night:

Current and former elected leaders

Dan Evans, for­mer Governor
Sam Reed, for­mer Sec­re­tary of State
Ralph Munro, for­mer Sec­re­tary of State
King Coun­ty Exec­u­tive Dow Constantine
King Coun­ty Asses­sor Lloyd Hara
King Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Joe McDermott
Louise Miller, for­mer King Coun­ty Councilmember
Sen­a­tor Sharon Nel­son, Demo­c­ra­t­ic Leader
Sen­a­tor David Frockt
Sen­tor Prami­la Jayapal
Adam Kline, for­mer Senator
State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Reuven Carlyle
State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Zack Hudgins
State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Gael Tarleton
State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Roger Goodman
Eugene V. Lux, for­mer State Representative
Seat­tle City Coun­cilmem­ber Sal­ly Bagshaw
Belle­vue May­or Clau­dia Balducci
SeaT­ac City Coun­cilmem­ber Kathryn Campbell
Kirk­land City Coun­cilmem­ber Dave Asher
Kirk­land City Coun­cilmem­ber Shel­ley Kloba
Kirk­land City Coun­cilmem­ber Jay Arnold

Candidates

Van­dana Slat­ter, can­di­date for Belle­vue City Council
Rob John­son, can­di­date for Seat­tle City Council
Sandy Brown, can­di­date for Seat­tle City Council
Leslie Har­ris, can­di­date for Seat­tle School Board

Titles are list­ed for iden­ti­fi­ca­tion pur­pos­es only. 

And this is just the begin­ning. As this cam­paign rolls along, we expect to add many more elect­ed lead­ers and can­di­dates to our coali­tion roster.

We also con­tin­ue to receive orga­ni­za­tion­al back­ing. I’m very pleased to report that last week, NO on I‑1366 gained the sup­port of AARP Wash­ing­ton State and OneAm­er­i­ca Votes. And just tonight, the Mason Coun­ty Democ­rats vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to join us. We’re very pleased to have them all aboard.

Lat­er this week, we will have even more endorse­ments to announce. We’ll soon be adding a pre­lim­i­nary list of activists and con­cerned cit­i­zens who are opposed to I‑1366. If you’d like to join, you can sign up here.

About the author

Andrew Villeneuve is the founder and executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute, as well as the founder of NPI's sibling, the Northwest Progressive Foundation. He has worked to advance progressive causes for over two decades as a strategist, speaker, author, and organizer. Andrew is also a cybersecurity expert, a veteran facilitator, a delegate to the Washington State Democratic Central Committee, and a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps.

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