Anti-initiative campaigns start to raise big cash

Plus a look at the Legislature's animal-welfare caucus

Money from progressive-leaning billionaires, unions, and advocacy groups is starting to flow into campaigns against the three remaining conservative initiatives headed for the November ballot. 

The campaign against the proposed repeal of the Climate Commitment Act, the cap-and-trade system for major emitters of carbon pollution, has raised more than $2.5 million so far. Prominent donors to the No on 2117 campaign include Craig McKibben and Sarah Merner, a couple prominent in environmental philanthropy, who each gave $500,000¹; David Thatcher at $300K; and Peter Goldman at $50K. Tableau Software founder Chris Stoltze got things rolling earlier this year with $1M. 

Much of the debate around the conservative initiatives has centered on the $6 million spent by billionaire Brian Heywood to get the initiatives on the ballot, but the folks showing up to oppose them are not strangers to spending big to shape state policy.