A right wing group formed and primarily funded by Republican donor Brian K. Heywood of Redmond has admitted defeat in its efforts to qualify a batch of eleven right wing initiatives to the 2023 Washington State Legislature.
Despite spending $363,846.10 — mostly on advertising, printing and texting — the group was unable to successfully complete a signature drive for any of its measures, which variously proposed slashing funding for public services, rolling back popular police reform laws, repealing the state’s new capital gains tax on the wealthy, terminating Washington’s participation in the National Popular Vote Compact, and requiring private companies to oversee some ballot tabulations.
As the clock ran out, Heywood and his associates spoke of qualifying at at least one measure by the December 30th deadline, but could not finish the task of gathering 425,000 signatures for even their favorite of the eleven schemes.
In a publicly posted message, Heywood complained that the initiative process in Washington is “dominated by deep-pocketed special interests, increasingly expensive consultants, and paid signature gatherers.”
He added:
“Let’s Go Washington was founded on the idea that building a grassroots volunteer network and weening the process from an over-reliance on consultants is a worthwhile pursuit. However, this takes time — more than we first thought.”
Heywood isn’t wrong that initiatives have become a big business, but in truth, his group wasn’t stymied by “special interests” or “expensive consultants” or the Legislature’s Democratic majorities. It fell short principally because — from what our team has been able to ascertain — the group didn’t know what it was doing.
Simply put, its ambitions far exceeded its logistical capacity, as evidenced by its decision to try to run eleven initiatives simultaneously.
Having failed to qualify any of them, Heywood proceeded to award himself and his group the equivalent of a participation trophy, crowing: “We gathered more signatures than any other effort in our nation.”
But not enough to pass Go and collect $200.
Qualifying an initiative to the ballot with mostly volunteers is possible, and has been done as recently as 2015, when WAmend — chaired by NPI President Diane Jones and staffed by a team including NPI Advisory Councilmember Steve Zemke — successfully gathered enough signatures to qualify I‑735 to the Legislature.
I‑735 subsequently appeared on the Washington State ballot and was approved by over 62% of voters. Its findings are codified as RCW 29A.05.030.
Thanks to I‑735, Washington law now declares that the people of the Evergreen State do not approve of Supreme Court precedents sanctioning the legal fictions that corporations are people and money is speech.
I‑735 succeeded because it was backed by a team who had a grasp of the logistics needed to execute a signature drive successfully.
Since I‑735 made it, the signature requirement has gone up (twice, rising with the level of gubernatorial election turnout as required by the Washington State Constitution), paid petitioner labor has become more expensive, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made signature gathering more difficult. No initiatives have appeared on the statewide ballot for three consecutive years as a consequence.
However, the right wing did qualify one referendum, in 2020, which attempted to get rid of a comprehensive sexual health education law passed by the Legislature. Voters decided to keep the law, to the astonishment of the state’s right wing, which expected a different outcome and cried foul after being soundly beaten.
That campaign symbolized the growing disconnect between the voters of Washington and the state’s right wing political forces. They inhabit their own bubble or echo chamber and they seem not to understand or appreciate that their views are not widely popular. Consider this bit from Heywood’s letter:
Washington’s initiative system was designed as a “safety valve” for when the legislature passes laws opposed by the majority of voters. Lately, the legislature has shown itself willing to ignore the people — repeatedly.
Emphasis is mine.
It’s amusing that Heywood is renewing his claim that the Legislature’s Democratic majorities are totally out of touch merely a few weeks after voters returned every single Democratic legislative incumbent who sought reelection to Olympia and even expanded the Democratic Party’s majorities in both the House and Senate.
Washingtonians seem satisfied with the work of their Democratic Legislature and totally uninterested in the prospect of putting Republicans in charge: they sent even more Democrats to the statehouse in an election that Republicans had expected for a long time to be extremely dominant in.
It’s worth remembering that at the time Heywood launched Let’s Go Washington, Republicans were openly fantasizing about having control of the Legislature.
That’s partly what spurred the group to attempt so many initiatives at once: they wanted the ability to send what they thought would be a House run by J.T. Wilcox and a Senate run by John Braun a set of proposals that could be adopted into law without the need for a gubernatorial signature, knowing that Jay Inslee would happily wield his veto pen against their destructive schemes.
In August, however, Democrats romped in the Top Two election and the air instantly went out of the right wing’s balloon. Wilcox, Braun, and Republican Party Chair Caleb Heimlich conceded privately and later publicly that Republicans stood no chance of flipping either chamber. Democrats continued their legislative electoral dominance in November, leaving Republicans shaking their heads.
At NPI, we’re really interested in what people think about the work of our elected representatives and the issues of the day, so we do a lot of research, and we publish new poll findings regularly here on the Cascadia Advocate.
If Republicans like Brian Heywood paid any attention to our research, they’d know that they are the ones who are ignoring the people and pushing unpopular ideas. But they seem well and truly ensconced in their echo chamber, unwilling to consider that progressives actually have a better grasp of public opinion.
And so it goes.
Wednesday, January 4th, 2023
Right wing group “Let’s Go Washington” fails to qualify any of its 11 statewide initiatives
A right wing group formed and primarily funded by Republican donor Brian K. Heywood of Redmond has admitted defeat in its efforts to qualify a batch of eleven right wing initiatives to the 2023 Washington State Legislature.
Despite spending $363,846.10 — mostly on advertising, printing and texting — the group was unable to successfully complete a signature drive for any of its measures, which variously proposed slashing funding for public services, rolling back popular police reform laws, repealing the state’s new capital gains tax on the wealthy, terminating Washington’s participation in the National Popular Vote Compact, and requiring private companies to oversee some ballot tabulations.
As the clock ran out, Heywood and his associates spoke of qualifying at at least one measure by the December 30th deadline, but could not finish the task of gathering 425,000 signatures for even their favorite of the eleven schemes.
In a publicly posted message, Heywood complained that the initiative process in Washington is “dominated by deep-pocketed special interests, increasingly expensive consultants, and paid signature gatherers.”
He added:
“Let’s Go Washington was founded on the idea that building a grassroots volunteer network and weening the process from an over-reliance on consultants is a worthwhile pursuit. However, this takes time — more than we first thought.”
Heywood isn’t wrong that initiatives have become a big business, but in truth, his group wasn’t stymied by “special interests” or “expensive consultants” or the Legislature’s Democratic majorities. It fell short principally because — from what our team has been able to ascertain — the group didn’t know what it was doing.
Simply put, its ambitions far exceeded its logistical capacity, as evidenced by its decision to try to run eleven initiatives simultaneously.
Having failed to qualify any of them, Heywood proceeded to award himself and his group the equivalent of a participation trophy, crowing: “We gathered more signatures than any other effort in our nation.”
But not enough to pass Go and collect $200.
Qualifying an initiative to the ballot with mostly volunteers is possible, and has been done as recently as 2015, when WAmend — chaired by NPI President Diane Jones and staffed by a team including NPI Advisory Councilmember Steve Zemke — successfully gathered enough signatures to qualify I‑735 to the Legislature.
I‑735 subsequently appeared on the Washington State ballot and was approved by over 62% of voters. Its findings are codified as RCW 29A.05.030.
Thanks to I‑735, Washington law now declares that the people of the Evergreen State do not approve of Supreme Court precedents sanctioning the legal fictions that corporations are people and money is speech.
I‑735 succeeded because it was backed by a team who had a grasp of the logistics needed to execute a signature drive successfully.
Since I‑735 made it, the signature requirement has gone up (twice, rising with the level of gubernatorial election turnout as required by the Washington State Constitution), paid petitioner labor has become more expensive, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made signature gathering more difficult. No initiatives have appeared on the statewide ballot for three consecutive years as a consequence.
However, the right wing did qualify one referendum, in 2020, which attempted to get rid of a comprehensive sexual health education law passed by the Legislature. Voters decided to keep the law, to the astonishment of the state’s right wing, which expected a different outcome and cried foul after being soundly beaten.
That campaign symbolized the growing disconnect between the voters of Washington and the state’s right wing political forces. They inhabit their own bubble or echo chamber and they seem not to understand or appreciate that their views are not widely popular. Consider this bit from Heywood’s letter:
Emphasis is mine.
It’s amusing that Heywood is renewing his claim that the Legislature’s Democratic majorities are totally out of touch merely a few weeks after voters returned every single Democratic legislative incumbent who sought reelection to Olympia and even expanded the Democratic Party’s majorities in both the House and Senate.
Washingtonians seem satisfied with the work of their Democratic Legislature and totally uninterested in the prospect of putting Republicans in charge: they sent even more Democrats to the statehouse in an election that Republicans had expected for a long time to be extremely dominant in.
It’s worth remembering that at the time Heywood launched Let’s Go Washington, Republicans were openly fantasizing about having control of the Legislature.
That’s partly what spurred the group to attempt so many initiatives at once: they wanted the ability to send what they thought would be a House run by J.T. Wilcox and a Senate run by John Braun a set of proposals that could be adopted into law without the need for a gubernatorial signature, knowing that Jay Inslee would happily wield his veto pen against their destructive schemes.
In August, however, Democrats romped in the Top Two election and the air instantly went out of the right wing’s balloon. Wilcox, Braun, and Republican Party Chair Caleb Heimlich conceded privately and later publicly that Republicans stood no chance of flipping either chamber. Democrats continued their legislative electoral dominance in November, leaving Republicans shaking their heads.
At NPI, we’re really interested in what people think about the work of our elected representatives and the issues of the day, so we do a lot of research, and we publish new poll findings regularly here on the Cascadia Advocate.
If Republicans like Brian Heywood paid any attention to our research, they’d know that they are the ones who are ignoring the people and pushing unpopular ideas. But they seem well and truly ensconced in their echo chamber, unwilling to consider that progressives actually have a better grasp of public opinion.
And so it goes.
# Written by Andrew Villeneuve :: 11:18 AM
Categories: Elections
Tags: WA-Ballot
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