Ann Donnelly (“Six initiatives offer voters rare opportunity,” The Columbian, Feb. 3) writes that voters’ “best route to change our state’s direction may lie with six ballot initiatives.” I agree, though I see the opportunity very differently. Funded by a hedge fund executive, and brought to the ballot by paid signature-gatherers, these initiatives seek, in Donnelly’s words, to “overturn the most extreme examples of Washington’s progressive legislative overreach.”
These initiatives would overturn or short-circuit legislation that has the potential to make our corner of the world a better place, from offsetting climate change to providing support for children to be who they are in the face of harmful parental control, from making police action safer for the general public to providing revenue in this state that does not have an income tax.
This is our opportunity as voters to rebuff the efforts of one person who views “elections” as “a messy, ugly, dirty word” and who would, using his wealth as the mechanism, override the actions of our democratically elected legislators to conform to his personal worldview. Using six “No” votes on six initiatives, we will accomplish three things: Support representative democracy, loosen the grip of money on governmental processes and move our state in a life-affirming direction.
