Our issues now stand better chance of passage

THE NOVEMBER general election held welcome news for Council 2 — at least as far as the State Legislative contests were concerned.

Here’s why:

The Democrats, who controlled only the House before the election, will now control both the House and the Senate when the Legislature meets in January.

In the Senate, the Democrats wrested two seats from the Republicans to move from being 24-25 down to 26-23 ahead.

In the House, the Democrats extended their majority by three seats to 55-43.

As a result, some issues favored by Council 2 are likely to stand a better chance of being passed by both the House and the Senate in the next two years.

In the governor's race, Democrat Christine Gregoire (pictured left) beat Republican Sen. Dino Rossi in a hand recount by 129 votes. Gregoire was sworn in as governor Jan. 12.

Tim Eyman — against whom Council 2 has fought several battles — lost initiative I-892 that called for an additional 17,000 slot machines in Washington State.

Voters rejected the initiative by a 60-40 ratio.

“It was a pretty solid defeat, but nevertheless you can expect to hear more of him in the spring,” Pat Thompson, Deputy Director of Council 2 says. “He is speaking about several new initiatives.”
Earlier this year Eyman failed to gather sufficient signatures for Initiative 864 that proposed a radical 25 percent local property tax cut.

Council 2 helped defeat the initiative by spearheading a campaign to educate voters about the potential devastating impacts of I-864 as well as the corruption of the initiative process itself through Eyman’s use of paid signature gatherers.

Eyman has failed to pass any initiatives in the last two years.

“But we know as long as there is money to be made from the process he will be back,” Thompson says.