Send new msg to Republicans: “Isn’t it embarrassing to be lectured to by a Democrat”?
When it comes to anti-initiative bills in Olympia, in past years, it was the Democrats’ sponsoring them and Republicans opposing them.
For over a decade (from 2003-2013), it was clear which party opposed listening to the people and which party believed in the people’s voice.
Now it’s all muddy.
Now we have Republican legislators teaming up with Democrats to gut the initiative process. And when our supporters ask these Republican legislators why they’re doing it, they write back: “All we’re trying to do is stop future liberal initiatives.”
IF THAT WERE TRUE, THEN WHY ARE LIBERAL DEMOCRATS CO-
Think about it: if the bill only blocked liberal initiatives, Democrat legislators would oppose it. They’re on board because the bill shuts down all initiatives.
Democrats must be privately laughing at these Republicans for finally joining their anti-initiative agenda.
And what should be especially humiliating for Republican legislators is they’re being lectured to on this issue by a Democrat:
Rep. Ross Hunter (D-Medina), the chief budget writer, told the Associated Press he’s willing to consider the measure if it makes it to the House, but has reservations. “I’m generally not in favor of amending the Constitution to limit the rights of the people,” said Hunter.
This is truly embarrassing.
As I told KIRO: “The reality is the initiative process is very much like free speech. You have to be able to allow voices that even you disagree with. It’s not like they’re targeting specifically our initiatives, they’re shutting it down for everybody. Legislators down in Olympia make 99.9 percent of the laws. We don’t want them to have 100 percent monopoly,” said Eyman.
Below are the email addresses for Republican legislators (both Senate and House).
Send them an email today (preferably RIGHT NOW).
Write something like this (feel free to add more, tell ’em how you feel):
“You’re hurting the people, you’re hurting the initiative process, you’re hurting your caucus, you’re hurting the Republican brand. Stop it. Just stop it. These anti-initiative bills are bad, convince your colleagues to oppose them:
SJR 8201, HJR 4204: gives the government the power to stop any initiative.
HB 1463, SB 5375: prohibits people from collecting signatures unless they’re first registered, licensed, and trained by the government, subjected to national criminal background checks, require headshot photos, name, and personal address before being allowed to collect signatures (Sen. Judy Warnick is the only Republican legislator co-sponsoring this horrible bill). Leave the initiative process alone.”
Cut and paste the following email addresses into the “To” line (if you have trouble, send me your email and I’ll forward it to legislators):
joe.fain@leg.wa.gov; jan.angel@leg.wa.gov; barbara.bailey@leg.wa.gov; randi.becker@leg.wa.gov; john.braun@leg.wa.gov ; bruce.dammeier@leg.wa.gov; brian.dansel@leg.wa.gov; mike.hewitt@leg.wa.gov; andy.hill@leg.wa.gov; jim.honeyford@leg.wa.gov; curtis.king@leg.wa.gov; steve.litzow@leg.wa.gov; mark.miloscia@leg.wa.gov; steve.oban@leg.wa.gov; mike.padden@leg.wa.gov; linda.parlette@leg.wa.gov; ann.rivers@leg.wa.gov; judy.warnick@leg.wa.gov; michael.baumgartner@leg.wa.gov
Your emails and phone calls are incredibly effective. Send your email today.
And as we wrote above: Please forward this email to everyone you can. Share it on social media. We gotta get the word out on this.
We not only need your help this year fighting against tax hikes — it turns out we need your help to save the initiative process itself from legislative extinction.