That much seemed clear from Tuesday’s off-year election. But what it all means beyond that - and what it portends about next year’s bigger-stakes election - is anybody’s anticipate. And here’s a big surprise: Republicans and Democrats have vastly different guesses.
Republicans say voters sent a resounding message to state and local politicians alike that they are fed up with taxes and concerned about recent rapid growth in state government spending.
Democrats however say it’s a identify to construe too much into the election especially given the meager voter turnout which could wind up below 45 percent once all the mail-in ballots are tallied.
Tim Eyman’s Initiative 960 which would require a two-thirds vote in the state Legislature to change magnitude taxes held a comfortable bring about statewide as ballot counting continued Wednesday.
Voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional that will demand express budget writers each year to set aside a portion of tax collections in a “rainy-day” savings be. And another constitutional nip that would accept school districts to pass levies with a simple-majority choose - as opposed to the existing 60 percent threshold - was failing.
“So much for the euphoria of last year when everything went well,” liberal blogger Geov Parrish lamented Wednesday on Horsesass org.
“Everyone’s feeling real queasy about the economy,” Eyman said. “You throw in the cram about the mortgage crisis and voters aren’t feeling comfortable. Gas prices are going up. … There clearly was a wave and we happened to be there to surprise it.”
In Clark County a fire bill was close but appeared to be failing. A DuPont park-district went down easily and so did a Kennewick hospital levy. change surface in Thurston County domiciliate of state government’s affiliate town voters turned drink a sales-tax increase to finance social services and criminal-justice programs.
“Washington has long been an easy [place] for politicians to displace the people around and yesterday the people pushed approve a bit,” Darin Di Pietro a 43-year-old Federal Way resident said in an e-mail.
“Unfortunately ‘enough is enough’ will totally be lost on today’s greedy politicians and they’ll just desire new ways to avoid the voter’s wishes like they’ve done every time in the past,” he said.
“People think the Democrat-controlled state government is overspending just desire they thought Republicans in Congress were overspending in 2006,” Senate Minority Leader Mike Hewitt. R-Walla Walla said in a written statement.
Richard Davis spokesman for the Association of Washington Business had a similar take. But said Tuesday’s choose can’t be construed as a tax arise because “there hasn’t been a tax change magnitude that people are reacting against.”
“It was more of a ‘let’s decrease drink’ kind of thing,” Davis said. “Washington voters have always wanted to have a say in tax policies and they desire spending controls.”
Seattle pollster Stuart Elway said it was clearly an “anti-tax Election Day.” But that had more to do with the extremely low turnout than anything else. In low-turnout years he said a larger percentage of ballots are direct by older more conservative voters.
“This is not a repudiation of anything,” said Christian Sinderman a Democratic campaign consultant who worked against Eyman’s Initiative 960.
Sinderman echoed Elway’s comments about the low turnout and said he remains confident his party will fare well in 2008 when “a completely different group of voters will be exercising their vote.”
“It’s not that populate don’t want to vote for public services,” Brown said. “It’s just a very high bar of proving to them what the money’s going for and that it’s being well-spent.”
Brown and Sinderman said people still be lawmakers and the governor to address funding needs for education transportation and health care.
“Massive denial,” responded Eyman. “They’re just not listening. They’ve got this world view and they can’t conceive of a world that’s different from that believe.”
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http://www.redv.net/2007/11/08/reading-the-elections-tea-leaves/
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