Far-Left celebrates passage of “democracy vouchers” – with some whoppers!

The Sightline Institute, an ultra-liberal environmental blog (and chief Jay Inslee cheerleader), was paid to promote Seattle’s Initiative 122, the so-called “democracy voucher” scheme pushed by the miss-named “Honest Elections Seattle”. Now, the extreme Left group is celebrating I-122 passage. Here’s a recent email from the group,

Two points must be made to respond to Sightline’s email. First, none of Sightline’s “promises” will come to fruition. That’s because—in the end—Honest Elections’ democracy reformation isn’t so honest, nor is it so democratic. I-122 isn’t about improving voter participation or taking big money out of politics. If that were true, I-122’s success would not have depended on huget out-of-state contributors, low voter participation, and would not have included exemptions for unions and other special interest groups to bundle contributions.

Rather, I-122 is about pushing Seattle elections and elected officials even further to the left. It’s about allowing wealthy liberal donors—who funded Sightline’s participation in this scheme—to put their money into other races with the assurance that the public treasury would be tapped to fund Seattle races.

Second, the claim that “community support enabled Sightline to pursue this opportunity and serve as the primary architect for this groundbreaking policy” is a blatant lie. Supporters of Seattle’s Initiative 122 raised a grand total of $1.3 million. Most of I-122’s fundraising success was due to the generosity of a handful of rich outsiders.

To try an maintain a grassroots appearance, the liberal donors made sure that I-122 was pushed by the Who’s Who of far-left political groups in Seattle, including Washington Community Action Network (CAN), Washington Bus, Win/Win Action, FUSE Washington, and the Sightline Institute – all groups funded by the secretive Progress Alliance of Washington.

According to the Seattle Times, Washington CAN contributed more than $313,000 to the I-122 campaign. Win/Win Action donated more than $52,500. All these groups, in turn, were the recipients of the Progress Alliance of Washington’s money—which also pumped staff time and money toward I-122.

Sightline did not successfully pass I-122 because of “community support.” The group got I-122 past the voters because of avoiding the truth, which might have exposed the rich donors that keep the group financially afloat.