As last month drew to a close, Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat penned a column sizing up the recently-concluded 2021 legislative session titled: “It’s Seattle’s state now in politics, and everybody else is living in it.” While an editor presumably wrote or approved that headline, it does seem to genuinely sum up the column’s premise, as evidenced by its opening paragraphs:
“We all live in Seattle now.”
That was one conservative state senator’s lament over the just-concluded legislative session in Olympia. It reflects the view — voiced here by Sen. Doug Ericksen, R‑Ferndale — that Seattle’s brand of activist, progressive politics has finally, after years of trying, taken over the state.
“The most radical Legislature in the history of Washington state is forcing everyone to live like Seattle,” was how Ericksen framed it.
I’ll get into how accurate this is in a minute. But there’s no question that what just went down at the statehouse marked a political breakthrough of sorts — for the progressive left.
… and the column’s concluding paragraphs:
The GOP critics cited above are not wrong about the overall gist of what just happened, though. Seattle has long been the big political power in the state, but the more moderate Legislature operated for decades as its check and balance.
Many lefty ideas hatched in Seattle went down to the statehouse, only to die or get blenderized beyond all recognition.
Not this time. Ideologically, it really is Seattle’s state right now. Everybody else is, for the moment, living in it.
I consider Danny Westneat a thoughtful columnist and commentator who often has good insights, but the supposition expressed above doesn’t accurately describe the current dynamics in our statehouse at all.
The reason the 2021 legislative session was so consequential and packed with progressive policy wins is not because Seattle became politically dominant in the statehouse, or experienced some sort of political breakthrough.
It’s because last year, voters across the state elected a Legislature that is more diverse, inclusive, and representative than any we have ever seen before… a Legislature with majorities in each chamber that support values, principles, and policy directions already supported by majorities of voters statewide.
This Legislature has new members like Tarra Simmons from Kitsap County, the first state legislator to have been once incarcerated. And T’wina Nobles from Pierce County, whose victory over Steve O’Ban last autumn brought representation for Black women back to the Senate after a multi-year absence.
And Alicia Rule, a small business owner from Whatcom County, who took the place of an ardent Trump boosting Republican up in the 42nd District.
Plus legislators like Jamila Taylor from King County and April Berg from Snohomish County — two incredible women of color who successfully defended open House seats in swing districts for the Democratic Party.
These legislators joined an outstanding Democratic Class of 2018 that included leaders like My-Linh Thai (D‑41st District), Debra Lekanoff (D‑42nd District), Lisa Callan and Bill Ramos (D‑5th District), Emily Randall (D‑26th District), Mona Das (D‑47th District) and Claire Wilson (D‑30th District).
In 2017, when my state Senator Manka Dhingra (another trailblazing legislator who serves as a Northwest Progressive Foundation boardmember) was elected in the 45th, she said in her Election Night victory speech: “I hope to build a state government that empowers every single person in Washington to feel like they have a voice, like they have a role to play in making our democracy thrive.”
That is exactly what she and her colleagues in the Legislature have been doing these past few years. Beginning with Senator Dhingra’s arrival in the Senate almost four years ago, the floodgates of the Legislature opened, and out poured waves of progressive bills that have strengthened our communities.
In four sessions (2018, 2019, 2020, 2021) the Legislature has — to name just a few areas of progress — strengthened voting rights, advanced environmental justice and racial justice, improved our upside down tax code, bolstered police accountability, made college more accessible and affordable, expanded healthcare, and added much needed protections for workers and tenants.
These are priorities shared by people all over Washington, not just folks in Seattle. Look at the makeup of our state’s executive and legislative leadership. Look at who’s prime sponsoring the bills and shepherding them through the legislative process. Look at all of the supportive testimony for the bills.
As Lisa Brown pointed out after she read Westneat’s column, we have a geographically diverse legislative leadership team: A House Speaker from Tacoma, a Senate Majority Leader from Spokane, and five out of six budget chairs who aren’t from Seattle. Brown could have added that we have Democratic floor leaders from Vancouver and Mukilteo along with whips from Spokane and Bremerton.
Seven out of nine members of the state’s executive department do not live in King County. Seattle may feel in many ways like the state’s political power center, especially with respect to the movement of money to and through campaigns.
But the reality is this: Ideologically, Washington is as much Poulsbo and Spokane and Lakewood and Redmond’s state right now as it is Seattle’s.
Seattle voters didn’t elect any of the lawmakers I named above. They were all elected in districts that don’t have a single Emerald City neighborhood in them. And their contributions have been absolutely profound, as anyone who has been interacting with the Legislature in recent years can surely attest.
I wrote above that recent legislative elections (in 2017, 2018, and 2020) have given us a Legislature with majorities in each chamber that support values, principles, and policy directions already supported by majorities of voters statewide.
I know this to be true because of NPI’s research.
For many years now, including during the entirety of the timespan I referred to, NPI has been asking Washington State voters about their views on issue after issue after issue, from levying a capital gains tax to abolishing the death penalty to passing comprehensive sex ed. And consistently, we have found support for progressive policies, typically ranging from around 57% to 75% or more.
For example, here’s where voters stood on school funding after session last year:
School funding poll finding (May of 2020)
QUESTION: Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree with the following statement: Washington’s public schools are underfunded, and we need to raise state revenue to fully fund them?
ANSWERS:
- Agree: 60%
- Strongly agree: 35%
- Somewhat agree: 25%
- Disagree: 31%
- Somewhat disagree: 15%
- Strongly disagree: 16%
- Not Sure: 9%
Asked May 19th-20th, 2020 (1,070 likely voters surveyed by Public Policy Polling; MoE +/- 3.0% at the 95% confidence interval)
And here’s where they stood on capital gains at the same juncture:
Capital gains tax poll finding (May of 2020)
QUESTION: Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose taxing the capital gains of wealthy individuals to help pay for public schools, colleges and universities?
ANSWERS:
- Support: 59%
- Strongly support: 42%
- Somewhat support: 17%
- Oppose: 32%
- Somewhat oppose: 11%
- Strongly oppose: 21%
- Not Sure: 9%
Asked May 19th-20th, 2020 (1,070 likely voters surveyed by Public Policy Polling; MoE +/- 3.0% at the 95% confidence interval)
And here’s how voters felt about just cause eviction (requiring landlords to state a reason prior to evicting someone from a home):
Just cause eviction poll finding (May of 2020)
QUESTION: Under current state law, landlords may evict tenants without providing a reason. Do you strongly agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, or strongly disagree that the Washington State Legislature should improve landlord-tenant relationships by requiring landlords to give a reason when attempting to move someone out of a home?
ANSWERS:
- Agree: 60%
- Strongly agree: 36%
- Somewhat agree: 24%
- Oppose: 34%
- Somewhat disagree: 14%
- Strongly disagree: 20%
- Not Sure: 6%
Asked May 19th-20th, 2020 (1,070 likely voters surveyed by Public Policy Polling; MoE +/- 3.0% at the 95% confidence interval)
And here’s an older poll finding from 2016 about putting a price on pollution:
Cap and trade poll finding (June of 2016)
QUESTION: Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose implementing a cap-and-trade system, where polluters would be charged a fee to reduce carbon dioxide emissions and fund public schools and transportation projects?
ANSWERS:
- Support: 59%
- Strongly support: 37%
- Somewhat support: 22%
- Oppose: 36%
- Somewhat oppose: 13%
- Strongly oppose: 23%
- Not Sure: 4%
Asked June 14th-15th, 2016 (679 likely voters surveyed by Public Policy Polling; MoE +/- 3.8% at the 95% confidence interval)
Now, you might be thinking, wait a minute… that last poll finding is from 2016! That’s five years ago! And yes, that’s true… this is a five year old poll finding. That speaks to how long a majority of voters have been ready for climate action!
We ask about views on legislation to address climate justice every year and always find a majority of likely Washington voters in support of putting a price in pollution, whether through a Green New Deal at the federal level, or a pollution tax at the state level, or cap and invest/cap and trade at the state level.
This particular question specifically mentions cap and trade and was asked before Donald Trump was installed in the White House by the Electoral College, so it makes sense to circle back to in light of the Legislature’s passage of E2SSB 5126.
Let’s consider another issue, one very recently on the ballot.
Last year, when the Legislature passed a bill requiring schools to provide comprehensive sexual education, Republican lawmakers threw a giant temper tantrum on the floor of the House and Senate. After the bill passed, they and their allies instigated a signature drive to force the legislation onto the ballot for a public vote, confident it would be overturned, and confident they would benefit electorally from a public backlash to the bill. But there wasn’t one.
We anticipated that there would not be any backlash based on our polling, which found two out of three voters (a supermajority) in support of the bill.
Comprehensive sex ed poll finding (October of 2019)
QUESTION: The Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction has asked the Washington State Legislature to adopt legislation requiring all Washington state schools to teach inclusive, evidence-informed, scientifically accurate, comprehensive sexual health education, which must include “affirmative consent” curriculum. Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose or strongly oppose this legislation?
ANSWERS:
- Support: 67%
- Strongly support: 49%
- Somewhat support: 18%
- Oppose: 22%
- Somewhat oppose: 7%
- Strongly oppose: 15%
- Not sure: 11%
Asked October 22nd-23rd, 2019 (900 likely voters surveyed by Public Policy Polling; MoE +/- 3.3% at the 95% confidence interval)
A year later, as ballots were about to drop, we checked back in with voters.
Referendum 90 poll finding (October of 2020)
QUESTION: Referendum 90, on the current statewide ballot, concerns comprehensive sexual health education. The official description is as follows: This bill would require school districts to adopt or develop, consistent with state standards, comprehensive age-appropriate sexual health education, as defined, for all students, and excuse students if their parents request. Are you voting Approved or Rejected on this referendum?
ANSWERS:
- Voting Approved: 56%
- Voting Rejected: 33%
- Not sure: 11%
Asked October 14th-15th, 2020 (610 likely voters surveyed by Public Policy Polling; MoE +/-4.0% at the 95% confidence interval)
A few weeks later, the actual election results were certified:
Referendum 90
- Approved: 57.82% (2,283,630 votes)
- Rejected: 42.18% (1,665,906 votes)
Most of the voters who weren’t sure evidently decided to vote to reject R‑90, but some joined the Approved camp, propelling it to an even higher percentage in the actual election. Our polling was correct and the returns in the November 2020 election proved it — to the shock of quite a few Republicans.
At NPI, we love data. We believe in research-driven advocacy. That’s why we regularly take the pulse of the electorate through surveys conducted by trusted partners. We learn a lot from checking in regularly with voters.
Those “liberal dreams that have been bollixed up in Olympia forever” (to use Westneat’s words) simply needed a more diverse, inclusive, and representative Legislature to get due consideration and passage. In 2020, voters tipped the scales and gave the Legislature working majorities that are more in alignment with their own views on a long, long, long list of issues.
As Westneat acknowledged a little later in his column: “A lot of this stuff is plain overdue.” Precisely! Voters have been ready for the progressive wins we saw this session for a long time. We just didn’t have a truly representative Legislature capable of acting on many of them. That is the key factor explaining why this session was different than so many that came before. That is what’s changing.
And thank goodness!
It’s understandable that Trump-loving Republicans like Doug Ericksen don’t like this one bit. But it definitely doesn’t mean that “we all live in Seattle now.”
What it actually means is that we have a responsive state government attuned to the needs and wishes of the people: a state government that is more policy-oriented than politics-oriented. We’re getting action instead of theater.
That’s something I have wanted to see for pretty much all of my life, for as long as I’ve been old enough to understand what government is, and can do.
It’s a beautiful thing.
While there is much more work that needs to be done to build a better Washington, we are unquestionably making progress, and that is what conscious progressive leadership from across our state can do for us.
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