The Far Left activists over at Fuse Washington can’t be happy with the 2015 election results. Fuse worked hard to defeat Initiative 1366, the tax cut/tax-limiting constitutional amendment. But, its appear to be all for naught. The latest statewide returns show I-1366 leading by a wide margin, 54-46%.
The initiative will cut the state sales tax by one penny unless the state Legislature places a constitutional amendment on the ballot calling for a two-thirds legislative vote or a popular vote on tax increase.
The outcome of I-1366 should come as no surprise. Voters have repeatedly approved initiatives calling for the two-thirds rule only to have them ignored by Democrat legislatures or struck down by the state Supreme Court. However, that I-1366 should win by such a large margin despite the best efforts of Fuse is cause for embarrassment for the far-Left organization.
Opponents of I-1366 have vowed to continue fighting it in a court of law, since they have once again lost in the court of public opinion.
I-1366 is not the only significant defeat for the Left. Republican Terri Hickel has a comfortable lead—54-46%—in the 30th Legislative District’s special election for state representative. Hickel’s victory comes despite the fact that the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC), as a part of a liberal attack network, pulled out all the stops to promote incumbent Democrat State Representative Carol Gregory.
Hickel’s win reduces the Democrat majority in the State House to 50-48. That means the defection of a single Democrat to the GOP would allow for co-Speakers to preside over the House, as was the case from 1999-2001. Two common-sense Democrats could also join the 48 Republicans to create a Majority Coalition, similar to what happened in the State Senate in 2013.
All scenarios point to a very long session for current House Speaker Frank Chopp. He has seen his Democrat majority reduced from a near-veto-proof 63-35 in 2008, to a near-unmanageable 50-48 in 2016. Long used to getting his way through pure power politics, Chopp may actually to learn to get along with the other people in his sandbox.
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