Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A recall petition against a Colorado lawmaker who supported gun rights was deemed sufficient Tuesday, setting up the first potential recall of a state lawmaker in Colorado history.
Lawyers for Senate President John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, are challenging the recall effort. They argued that the petition was improperly worded and therefore invalid.
One of the perks of incumbency is the ability to make it harder for your opponents to one day sweep you out from office.
The Republican-led Arizona Legislature has embraced that truism this year with two election overhauls aiming to protect ambitious incumbents while also creating new hurdles for voters looking to give unpopular politicians the boot.
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State initiative advocate Tim Eyman wants a judge to decide the next step of Redmond’s first-ever, citizen-driven initiative concerning the city’s controversial traffic-enforcement program.
Eyman, a co-sponsor of the initiative, hired an attorney, who filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court earlier today, ordering Redmond’s city clerk to forward the petition she received earlier this month to the county auditor.
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Critics on Wednesday weighed in on a measure aimed at tightening regulations on signature-gathering, saying it would make it harder for grassroots initiatives to make the ballot and would target signature gatherers for harassment from opponents. The bill, proposed by Rep. Chris Reykdal, D-Tumwater, requires all signature-gathering businesses and paid signature gatherers to register with the Secretary of State. It also increases the fee for filing initiatives or referenda from $5 to $500, $450 of which would be refunded if the measure qualifies for the ballot.
Voters will get to decide the fate of Tim Eyman’s latest tax initiative in November. State officials say I-1053 has qualified for the fall ballot. It would reinstate a supermajority requirement for state legislators to raise taxes.
Supporters of Initiative 1068, which would legalize marijuana in Washington, are up in smoke at being dumped by an influential union and being treated as a “fringe issue” by the state Democratic Party. “It was (bleeping) tacky after they danced with us for months,” said Philip Dawdy, I-1068 campaign coordinator. The campaign learned, from an Associated Press reporter, that it would not be getting money from the Service Employees International Union and other wellsprings of cash for liberal causes in the Evergreen State.
The King County Council fell one vote short Monday of sending residents an August ballot measure that would increase the county’s sales tax to save criminal justice services from drastic cuts. Despite pleas from Sheriff Sue Rahr and a room of uniformed police officers, the council’s four Republican members voted no. Needing six votes to pass, the measure died along an anticipated 5-4 partisan split.
A state income tax has for years been the “third rail” of Washington politics, but a broad activist coalition on Wednesday night launched a signature drive to put Initiative 1098 onto the November ballot. It would be the first time a tax reform measure, including an income tax, has been put to a public vote in nearly 40 years.
Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna will argue before the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday that the names of people who sign an initiative should be made public. The case arises from the unsuccessful measure last year to overturn the “everything but marriage” law for homosexual couples. Gay rights activists want to publicize the names of the 138,000 people who signed the petitions. A group behind the campaign, Protect Marriage Washington, says exposing the names could open signers to harassment.
Gov. Chris Gregoire on Friday signed a measure meant to make ballots less confusing to voters. Under the measure that was unanimously passed by both the House and Senate, ballots will have to be clearly marked to show where ballot instructions end and the spot to vote begins. The bill was sparked by confusion in King County over a cluttered ballot design that officials say caused about 40,000 voters to skip over Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1033 in the November election.
The Bellevue School Board voted unanimously Tuesday to place a pair of levy proposals on the February ballot. The measures would raise a combined $266 million if approved by voters, and both would replace expiring levies. One levy would authorize the district to collect $191 million over four years to pay for operations and educational programs, including salaries and benefits, transportation, athletics, English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, and the district’s seven-period day.
Secretary of State Sam Reed on Monday formally appealed a federal judge’s ruling that blocks the release of names of people who signed Referendum 71. In its filing (Emergency_Motion_(09-14-09).pdf”>PDF) to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the state argues that Judge Benjamin Settle’s ruling Thursday that people who sign referendums or initiatives have the First Amendment right to engage in anonymous political speech is fundamentally flawed. R-71, which will be on the November ballot, seeks to overturn the state’s new “everything but marriage” same-sex domestic partner law.
OLYMPIA, Wash. — As lawmakers chop their way out of an estimated $8 billion budget deficit, voices in the Democratic majority’s political base are crying out for higher taxes to save favorite state services.
So where’s the money? One place to look is the so-called “shopping list,” a state Revenue Department compilation of possible sources of additional money for the state.