Repeal Tim Eyman's push polls
Repeal Tim Eyman's push polls

Hap­py news to share: One of NPI’s most impor­tant Wash­ing­ton State leg­isla­tive pri­or­i­ties for 2019 is anoth­er step clos­er to the fin­ish line.

Yes­ter­day, the Sen­ate Rules Com­mit­tee vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to advance Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Kud­er­er’s SB 5224 to the floor of the Sen­ate, where it now awaits a vote on final pas­sage by the cham­ber’s forty-nine members.

SB 5224 would per­ma­nent­ly abol­ish Tim Eyman’s waste­ful and decep­tive push polls, which Eyman false­ly calls advi­so­ry votes. Nine­teen of Eyman’s push polls have clut­tered up Wash­ing­to­ni­ans’ bal­lots since 2012, but the absurd things could soon be his­to­ry if the Sen­ate takes action to repeal them and the House fol­lows suit.

The Sen­ate State Gov­ern­ment gave SB 5224 a unan­i­mous, bipar­ti­san “do pass” rec­om­men­da­tion ear­li­er this month, spark­ing an epic Tim Eyman melt­down that includ­ed the insti­ga­tion of a mul­ti-day cam­paign of harass­ment against Repub­li­can State Sen­a­tor Hans Zeiger (R‑25th Dis­trict: Pierce County).

The bill is now list­ed thir­ty-ninth on the Sen­ate’s cal­en­dar order. A total of six­ty-nine bills are cur­rent­ly in the queue wait­ing for floor debate.

While we don’t expect to see SB 5224 sail out of the full Sen­ate pri­or to the next cut­off with­out oppo­si­tion, it sure would be nice if it did.

Repub­li­cans have spent years com­plain­ing about waste, fraud, and abuse in gov­ern­ment. Now they have an oppor­tu­ni­ty to vote for a sim­ple bill that gets rid of some­thing that’s unques­tion­ably, incred­i­bly waste­ful: Tim Eyman’s push polls.

Huge kudos to Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Kud­er­er, who rep­re­sents NPI’s home dis­trict, for spon­sor­ing this bill and shep­herd­ing it to the Sen­ate floor.

Along with Sen­a­tor Man­ka Dhin­gra (Red­mond’s oth­er sen­a­tor and a board­mem­ber of the North­west Pro­gres­sive Foun­da­tion, NPI’s sib­ling), Sen­a­tor Kud­er­er has proven her­self to be one of the Sen­ate’s most effec­tive, dri­ven lawmakers.

It’s because of law­mak­ers like them that the Sen­ate has been trans­formed into a launch­pad for ideas we need instead of a grave­yard of progress.

Well done, Sen­a­tor Kud­er­er! Now, on to the floor vote for SB 5224…

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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