The leaders of an effort to get six conservative initiatives on Washington state’s November 2024 ballot say they have turned in far more than enough signatures to qualify each of the measures.
The Let’s Go Washington political committee reports that it has submitted more than 2.6 million signatures to the secretary of state’s office — more than 420,000 for each proposed initiative. They need about 325,000 verified signatures for each to qualify for the ballot.
The secretary of state’s office is now tasked with verifying the signatures.
The six initiatives would: repeal the state’s new cap-and-trade system, repeal the new capital-gains tax, ensure that no government body is able to impose an income tax, allow Washingtonians to opt out of a union-backed long-term care insurance scheme, end new state restrictions on police pursuits, and institute a parental bill of rights.
National Review first reported on the effort earlier this month.
The backers of the initiatives submitted the signatures for their sixth and final initiative — the long-term care program opt out — on Thursday.
Brian Heywood, the CEO of a long-term care investment fund based in Kirkland and a leader of the Let’s Go Washington committee, said that because they gathered so many signatures, he’s confident each of initiatives will qualify for the ballot.
“It tells me they’re very popular, the support is there,” he said.
And it’s not just Washington Republicans who’ve backed their efforts so far, Heywood said. “We ran a voter ID model on this, and 54 percent of the people that have signed appear to be Democrats or independents,” he said. “That’s huge.”
Left-wing advocacy groups and unions have begun pushing back on the initiatives, claiming that they’re an effort by “a small number of ultra-millionaires and billionaires” to “roll back progress to avoid paying what they owe” and to support “a tax code built on institutional racism.”
Heywood said the criticisms so far read “like a cartoon caricature” written by a ChatGPT bot directed to spit out tried and true ways to attack Republican ideas.
“What immediately pops up is, call your opponent a racist, make them a rich multimillionaire who is out of touch, throw in the word MAGA as many times as you can, and then [suggest] that they hate the poor and they don’t like baby seals,” he said.
Heywood has invested nearly $6 million into the effort so far. He said it is stupid to suggest he’s only backing the effort because he’s a “rich guy who’s trying to buy lower taxes for himself.”
“For the amount of money I’ve put into this, I could buy a really nice house in Florida and my taxes are way less,” he said. “If you have unpopular initiatives, it doesn’t matter how much money you spend. People aren’t signing them.”
Opponents of the initiatives have been accused of resorting to intimidation tactics to scare off signature gatherers. In mid-December, a woman in Issaquah defaced a one of the petitions with signatures. The state’s Democratic Party has also drown criticism for impeding the signature gathering effort. They actively urged Washingtonians to decline to sign the petitions and to call a hotline to report signature gatherers.
https://x.com/washdems/status/1732150658722148717?s=20
Once the signatures are verified, the initiatives will go to the Democrat-controlled legislature, which can approve any of them. Any of the initiatives that aren’t approved by lawmakers will go on the November ballot. Democrats can also create competing initiatives for the ballot.
Heywood said that they’ll be encouraging supporters to call their representatives to urge them to support the measures. They’ll also be doing more voter education in 2024, he said.
While Washington is a solid vote for Democratic presidential candidates, Heywood argued the initiatives will give people who don’t think their votes matter a chance to have an impact.
“We’re giving them something that actually does matter and they can make a difference on,” Heywood said, noting that lives in a reliably Democratic district. “I can vote on these from my lonely blue district and have an impact.”