Every day, the coali­tion work­ing to defeat Tim Eyman’s incred­i­bly destruc­tive I‑976 just gets big­ger, stronger, and more diverse.

The lat­est evi­dence of the coali­tion’s grow­ing strength came yes­ter­day, when the Main­stream Repub­li­cans of Wash­ing­ton announced that they have tak­en a posi­tion oppos­ing the mea­sure, one of two ini­tia­tives on this year’s statewide ballot.

I‑976 is “a mis­di­rect­ed attack on local­ly approved and crit­i­cal­ly need­ed funds to address traf­fic con­ges­tion and safe­ty around Wash­ing­ton State,” the orga­ni­za­tion stat­ed in a press release out­lin­ing its position.

I‑976 would repeal $4.2 bil­lion in bipar­ti­san, vot­er-approved trans­porta­tion invest­ments over the next six years. Already approved fund­ing for tran­sit expan­sion, bridge replace­ment, the State Patrol, Amtrak Cas­cades, freight mobil­i­ty projects, and road main­te­nance in over six­ty cities would be wiped out.

Main­stream Repub­li­cans Chair Mike Vas­ka, an attor­ney who helped lead the cam­paign oppos­ing Tim Eyman’s I‑695 twen­ty years ago, empha­sized that I‑976 would over­turn deci­sions made at the local lev­el by vot­ers and city officials.

“It’s pret­ty obvi­ous that we need to improve our trans­porta­tion sys­tem to address grid­lock and unsafe roads and bridges,” said Vas­ka. “Some six­ty com­mu­ni­ties around our state, from Ana­cortes to Zil­lah, have agreed to tax them­selves to fix their trans­porta­tion chal­lenges. The State should not be allowed to over­ride their local deci­sions, many of which were by direct votes of the people.”

Those local deci­sions were made pos­si­ble by a state statute that autho­rizes city and coun­ty gov­ern­ments to form what are known as trans­porta­tion ben­e­fit dis­tricts, or TBDs. Tim Eyman is seek­ing to repeal that statute and take away the author­i­ty of city-cre­at­ed TBDs to raise rev­enue for local roads and bet­ter bus ser­vice with I‑976.

Unlike Eyman, Vas­ka believes home rule should be respected.

“Main­stream Repub­li­cans believe that local and state gov­ern­ment should be fis­cal­ly respon­si­ble with the tax­pay­ers’ mon­ey,” Vaska’s state­ment adds. “Invest­ing to repair roads, to make sure that bridges are safe, and to address traf­fic con­ges­tion is some­thing that has bipar­ti­san sup­port, includ­ing from Repub­li­can leg­is­la­tors around the state, because it is a wise invest­ment in our future.”

Vas­ka con­clud­ed by observ­ing: “While there may be legit­i­mate ques­tions about the account­abil­i­ty of how some trans­porta­tion funds are spent in some areas, the rest of the state should not be pun­ished for those con­cerns. We don’t want to throw the prover­bial baby out with the bathwater.”

NPI con­grat­u­lates and thanks the Main­stream Repub­li­cans of Wash­ing­ton for tak­ing a stand against I‑976 and demon­strat­ing that this ill-con­ceived mea­sure has strong bipar­ti­san opposition.

It’s not the first time, either: Main­stream actu­al­ly has a much appre­ci­at­ed track record of oppos­ing Eyman ini­tia­tives that would hurt Wash­ing­ton’s future.

Ten years ago, MRW helped defeat Eyman’s I‑1033 and four years ago, it was part of the coali­tion that fought Eyman’s hostage-tak­ing I‑1366.

MRW has played a con­struc­tive role in Wash­ing­ton State pol­i­tics for near­ly half a cen­tu­ry. Its Cas­cade Con­fer­ence is one of the old­est con­tin­u­ous­ly held polit­i­cal gath­er­ings any­where in the coun­try. MRW will cel­e­brate Cas­cade’s fifti­eth anniver­sary on Octo­ber 30th with a gala at the SeaT­ac Hilton.

In addi­tion to Vas­ka, MRW’s board includes for­mer Sec­re­tary of State Sam Reed, for­mer Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Louise Miller, and for­mer State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Sid Mor­ri­son, all of whom are great­ly respect­ed by our team at NPI for their con­tri­bu­tions to Wash­ing­ton State’s well-being.

When it comes to Repub­li­can pol­i­tics, the Main­stream Repub­li­cans are like a light in the dark­ness. They believe they can be a pos­i­tive influ­ence on their par­ty at a time when many Wash­ing­to­ni­ans have giv­en up on it for under­stand­able reasons.

We admire their persistence.

The Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty used to be the par­ty of Dan Evans and the late John Spell­man. Sad­ly, today, it’s turned into the par­ty of Don­ald Trump and Tim Eyman. The Evans/Spellman lega­cy does live on, though, through the work of the Main­stream Repub­li­cans of Wash­ing­ton. Per­haps one day, the Grand Old Par­ty will reclaim that noble lega­cy. Until then, Main­stream will have to safe­guard it.

By oppos­ing Tim Eyman’s I‑976, MRW is demon­strat­ing that there is still a prag­mat­ic wing of the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty, even if it’s not in charge. Nice going, Main­stream Repub­li­cans! Let’s get I‑976 defeated.