Big money for ballot initiatives
Plus a winner in the Lands Commissioner recount, a pile of recommended reading, and come see Paul talk initiatives in Seattle
Early September marks the real opening of ballot initiative season. If you’re part of of a campaign, there’s typically an acrimonious conference call in which the campaign manager accuses all the consultants of wasting the funders’ money and f**king off all summer. The bottom line: voters have only just begun to pay attention, and there are just two months left to get to 50 percent plus one vote. This is also a time when fresh infusions of money flow in, signifying both hope and worry that measures will pass or fail. So here’s a look at some of the big checks flying around.
BP America cut the biggest check of August, sending another $1 million to Green Jobs PAC, which is opposing Initiative 2117 to repeal the Climate Commitment Act, which established a cap-and-trade system for major emitters of carbon pollution. We wrote about the multinational oil giant’s first $1M for this campaign back in May. Green Jobs PAC is housing the substantial corporate effort against I-2117. The committee has raised more than $3M so far. Most of its spending has been on public opinion research, which they’re keeping close to the vest.
BP’s support is notable both because the company is betting heavily on clean fuels initiatives and because thus far there is no appreciable oil money behind the repeal. BP and other oil companies spent $30M defeating a similar carbon-pricing scheme in 2018.
No on 2117, the larger, philanthropy-driven PAC that is also fighting the repeal, has raised more than $11M, including a fresh $500K infusion from the Nature Conservancy, which has now given $1M total. Most of the rest of the money comes from environmentally inclined millionaires and billionaires, including Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Initiative 2117 is one of three remaining measures put forward as a suite by Let’s Go Washington and Restore Washington as a conservative response to progressive laws adopted by the Legislature in recent years. (Three other measures were adopted by the Legislature earlier this year, in part to keep popular ideas off the ballot.) The other two are Initiative 2109, which would repeal the capital gains tax, and Initiative 2124, which would significantly weaken the state’s new long-term care insurance program by making the payroll tax that pays for it optional.
The Washington Federation of State Employees gave the campaign defending the capital gains tax $250K in August, while the Washington Education Association, the state’s powerful teachers union, chipped in another $234K. The tax was tied to big spending increases on education and child care. That campaign has raised more than $2.5 million thus far.
The opposition campaign against I-2124 is mostly fueled by the Service Employees International Union, which represents long-term care workers. The SEIU plowed $500K into the campaign in August, bringing its total haul to more than $1.3M.
The campaigns for the three initiatives are all housed within Let’s Go Washington, which has raised more than $5.3 million thus far for the 2024 cycle. However, that vastly overstates how much the committee has available to pay for a campaign to pass any one initiative. LGW has spent more than $4.4M thus far, and much of the money flowing in and out has been for a separate ballot initiative to roll back various restrictions on the use of natural gas. Its biggest contribution for August was $400K from Lawrence Hughes of Medina, a serial tech entrepreneur. Barring late infusions of cash, Let’s Go Washington looks to be badly outgunned in the coming months.
PQ
Upthegrove’s lead survives recount in public lands race
Just as we surmised last month, the race for Public Lands Commissioner came down to a hand recount after Democratic King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove edged Washington State GOP nominee Sue Kuehl Pederson by a mere 51 votes in the dog days of summer. The recount didn’t materially change the result, which is to be certified today. So Upthegrove advances to the general this fall with former U.S. Republican Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler. In that scenario, the race for the White House likely gets Democrats fired up in Upthegrove’s stomping grounds, handing him a healthier lead in November.
TG
A whole pile of Recommended Reading
While we were peaced out, many of our sisters and brothers who still labor for some iteration of The Man were grinding out copy that you probably missed. Herewith, some notable work from the last few weeks:
DoorDash spends heavily in hopes of a friendlier Seattle
Melissa Santos over at Axios gives us the lowdown on the mountain of money DoorDash dropped on its blitz against Seattle’s PayUp wage standard. The law, which took effect in January, guarantees dashers minimum wage protection and mileage reimbursement, spawning new fees from DoorDash and UberEats that consumers and restaurants have had to gulp down with their midnight chalupa. Pay in mind making the minimum wage in Seattle means making $19.97 an hour in 2024 before taxes, which is just dandy if you live the van life. DoorDash has claimed the payout for dashers is far higher, though it’s been gun-shy about the math.
The law’s been on the chopping block since this spring after it was unanimously approved by a more labor-friendly Seattle City Council in 2022. The council is expected to take another pass at it in the fall. Gig companies like DoorDash shelled out $200 million in 2020 to kill California legislation requiring them to treat and pay their delivery drivers like full employees, so PayUp’s death would come dirt cheap by comparison.
TG
DOC sits on millions in prison inmate fees
Grace Deng of the Washington State Standard had a revealing piece on a little-known program at the Department of Corrections. Turns out the state has collected millions in fees from people in custody—mostly for phone calls—but isn’t spending the money for inmate betterment per the law. This is likely to throw gasoline on the already smoldering debate about whether the state should be charging people steep rates to call home in the first place.
PQ
OSPI to school districts: Crack down on cellphones in class
Sami West over at KUOW reports on Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal’s new guidance for school districts calling for stricter policies on cellphones in classrooms. This may seem head-smackingly obvious to those of you who remember how difficult it was to concentrate amid the primitive analog classroom diversions of your youth—trouble-making buddies, distractingly attractive classmates, comic books, etc.—but have you tried prying a phone out of the entitled grasp of somebody else’s kid? Some districts are already voyaging into these troubled waters, but don’t look for schools everywhere to drop everything and jump on OSPI’s bandwagon. Despite the imperious-sounding title of the office, the supe doesn’t have the juice to force this on local districts.
PQ
Ben Franklin was right about beer, maybe?
Claire Withycombe of The Seattle Times is your early leader for lede of the month for her piece on the otherwise unsurprising thesis that political debate goes better in person with beer than in online isolation. We’ll just let her opening graf speak for itself:
TACOMA — Ben Franklin may have never actually said1 “beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy” — but one Washington professor suggests the frothy beverage could be a balm for our polarized times.
PQ
Want to hear about this stuff in person?
Want an in-person dose of this kind of political wonkiness? Head to Seattle on Thursday afternoon, where Paul will be appearing on a Block Table panel about the aforementioned slate of initiatives. Also featured: Jerry Cornfield of the Washington State Standard and Claire Withycombe of The Seattle Times. Political consultant Stephen Paolini of Bottled Lightning Collective will moderate. The initiatives could represent a major sea change in Washington politics and government, so there’s lots to talk about. The event is at Folio in Pike Place Market and we’re told there’s still space. RSVP to theblocktable@gmail.com.
Thanks for your attention. This is the free midweek edition of The Washington Observer, an independent newsletter on politics, government, and the influence thereof in Washington State. It’s made possible by our paid subscribers. If you’re not among them, go ahead and hit the button to get access to subscriber-only editions and the warm glow of supporting independent journalism.
One for the cat people
Remy’s outdoor-cat privileges were suspended while Paul and the Woman Who Lets Him Live With Her were away. He was not amused. Want to see your pet in this space? Drop us a photo and some caption material.
It turns out Ben was more of a wine guy. The actual language: “Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy.” No doubt some early beer marketer took creative license.