Political Activists in Pinstripes

In January, Eddie Spaghetti figured this was the year he could take it easy. Spaghetti isnt his real nameits Edward Agazarmbut thats what everyone in the states political world calls him. If you havent heard the name before, you know his work. Spaghetti runs the biggest signature-gathering operation in the state, Citizen Solutions, and every May and June, his crews can be found in front of shopping malls and big-box stores. But only if theres an initiative campaign willing to pay.

My partner Roy and I were looking at each other and thinking we werent going to get anything this year, Spaghetti says. We were going to take the year off. And then all hell broke loose.

What happened this spring was astonishing even to insiders. Six big-budget initiative campaigns came from nowhere, setting state records for the speed with which they gathered signatures and the amounts they wound up paying for them. It was a terrific year for Spaghettihe landed three of the contracts. And the money keeps pouring into campaign coffers$32 million by Labor Day, easily topping the previous state record for spending on initiatives, $22.8 million in 2005. How high it will go is anyones guess, but every day brings a new report of a six-figure media buy.

Behind it all is something just as striking. Five of the measures are sponsored by business, and never before has the states business community taken so many front-and-center issues to the ballot at the same time. The sixth, an income-tax measure backed by labor unions, social-service organizations and Bill Gates Sr., is countered by a business campaign every bit as vigorous. You might say that this year Washington business has become one big hotbed of political activism.

The Unified Field Theory

Of course, most initiatives, any year, have some sort of big-money backing, either from business or from labor. It takes deep pockets to run a campaign. And at first glance, it might be hard to see what makes this years Business Five so different. Certainly, there doesnt seem to be a common thread. Ones about workers comp and two are about liquor stores. One measure makes it harder for the Legislature to raise taxes in the future and another rolls back a few it approved in the past.

But the way most folks in the business lobby see it, the whole thing is connected.

Two initiatives would allow private sales of liquorwhich the liquor distributors would like to see. Photograph by Hayley Young.

It goes like this: The Legislature has been dominated by the Democratic Party for years. Labor and other Democratic constituencies have its ear, and lawmakers just arent willing to make the big cuts to government that the times demand. When the recession handed out a $12 billion shortfall, the party made a few scissor-snips around the edgesmodest cuts to state programs, travel bans, pay freezes, employee furloughs. Then it spent billions of dollars in one-time federal money to avoid further cuts and raised taxes on business by $700 million a year.

The result? The budget is still out of whack. Latest projections are that the state faces another $9 billion shortfall over the next four years. And its not hard to guess where it will turn for the money, says the top lobbyist for the Association of Washington Business (AWB), Gary Chandler. Business looked into the future and scared itself silly.

I think the concern coming from the business community is that the Legislature, instead of looking for ways to cut government spending, has been looking for ways to keep it up, Chandler says. There were proposals this year to cut the state liquor stores and eliminate the state printer. But it didnt choose to do either of these. Instead, it chose to raise taxes. All of us in our businesses have had to look at our spending. We dont have as much money coming in. Were looking at our core values and Im not sure government has done that yet.

Associations to the Front

Normally, AWB waits until September to take positions on initiatives. This spring, it adopted one of its own. I-1053 requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature for new taxes. Voters have approved the concept three times and lawmakers have junked it just as often. At least for two years, its a practical guarantee that taxes wont be raisedDemocrats dont quite have enough votes of their own and Republicans arent about to help. After two years, the state constitution allows lawmakers to modify or repeal initiatives with a majority vote, and so this one is always quick to go.

Tim Eyman, the states leading initiative promoter, got the ball rolling on 1053 but ran short on cash to pay Spaghetti. AWB raised it for him. And its a phenomenon repeated throughout this years campaignthe states leading business associations have all entered the fray. The Washington Roundtable, an association of the states largest businesses, is behind the campaign to defeat I-1098, the income tax measure. The Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW), the homebuilders association, is taking on workers comp.

That conflict has been going on so long, no one remembers when it began. Washington is one of only four states with a monopoly on injured-worker insurance. Business says the state program is too generous to workers; labor says its just right. When the unions stomped on a package of business-sponsored reforms this year and lawmakers backed them up, BIAW decided it had had enough. I-1082 would allow private insurers to compete with the state for the first time.

People everywhere these days are saying they have to economize, notes BIAW lobbyist Amy Brackenbury. Why doesnt government? This Legislature has been particularly tone deaf. Its not asking questions like why are we selling alcohol or why are we selling insurance? Theyre all things the private sector can do better.

Click to enlarge graphic in a separate window.

Booze and Soda Pop

The strangest battle of the year concerns the shuttering of the states liquor stores, a move that has broad popular support but is shot down every year in the Legislature by the public-employee unions. Costco went to court to overturn the states Repeal-era liquor laws; rebuffed, it backed I-1100, which does the same. The measure ends the three-tier system through which alcoholic-beverage distributors enjoy a monopoly in the state. Two of the nations biggest hard-liquor wholesalers, Odom Corp. and Youngs Market Co., then sponsored a competing measure of their own, I-1105. That one preserves their position in the marketplace. And if that wasnt confusing enough, the beer and wine distributors, fearing a loss of grocery store shelf space, teamed up with the unions, pouring millions of dollars into a campaign to defeat them both.

Then theres the big kahunaInitiative 1107, which would repeal the taxes lawmakers imposed this year on soda pop. Its funded by the American Beverage Association, which makes it a point to snuff soda taxes wherever they arise. By Labor Day, the association had pumped a whopping $14.4 million into the campaign, another state record. To give it cover, the measure also repeals new taxes on candy, gum, bottled water and canned-food processors. The initiatives not about pop taxes, say campaign spokespeople, its about food and beverage taxes. Given that kind of money to advertise an anti-tax message, 1107 all by itself might be enough to fuel a conservative surge at the polls. Certainly, thats what many in the business community are hoping.

Out of Control

Early polling gives some measures an excellent chance. I-1053 appears a slam dunk; both liquor measures may well pass. This state hasnt had the chance to tire of the initiative process, as has California, where some years the ballot goes on for pages and jaded voters just say no to everything. But while it lasts, the trend gives some a bad taste. I think theres a certain amount of opportunism, says Sandeep Kaushik, spokesman for the income-tax campaign and for the opposition to just about everything else. The big business lobbies think the wind is blowing their direction this year and they want to grab what they can.

And state Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, says things have gotten out of control. In the old days, if the Legislature passed something, it stuck. But six initiatives make 36 possible outcomes. Maybe business is putting its money in the wrong place, he adds. If I had my druthers, Id get rid of initiatives. If you dont like what the Legislature is doing, I always say you should elect a new one.