The out-of-state liberals behind Initiative 1464 – the one that would provide your tax dollars to politicians – certainly have a good sense of humor. That’s about the only explanation for the talking points they gave to their local apologist (Alan Durning, from the far-Left Sightline Institute), so he could compare I-1464’s millionaire donors to firefighters.
As the Seattle Weekly points out, “They’re at it again. The cohort of liberal donors who bankrolled last year’s successful Honest Elections initiative in Seattle are back with more Benjamins and bigger appetites. Their target? Passing I-1464.”
The moneybags behind the initiative know that the public might be skeptical if they knew the truth about I-1464. Namely that “two-thirds of the Yes money comes from a handful of ultra-wealthy liberal donors including Jonathan Soros (son of George), Connie Ballmer (wife of Steve), and Star Wars director JJ Abrams. Oh, and also investor Sean Eldridge.”
The presence of Eldridge on the roster of six-figure donors to I-1464 is perhaps the height of hypocrisy for people saying they want to get big money out of politics. As the Weekly wrote, Eldridge “personifies I-1464’s central contradiction: With the help of his also-wealthy husband in 2013 and 2014, Eldridge bought a house in New York’s 19th congressional district and proceeded to spend $4 million of their own money on a spectacularly failed bid for a U.S. House of Representatives seat.”
So evidently, Washingtonians are supposed to think that a rich liberal who failed to buy a congressional seat in New York is just altruistic at heart, and wants to help us out?
Well, according to the out-of-touch Durning, I-1464’s benefactors like Eldridge are just your typical first responders, rushing into action to save us. He dismissed the hypocrisy charge, and “replied by comparing the 1 percent funder strategy to wildfire fighters in eastern Washington setting small fires themselves to eliminate fuel for larger infernos.”
There you have it. You can believe that rich liberals from the East are just out here setting small fires to help battle larger blazes like the entire campaign finance system, or perhaps you can take look at Durning’s silly initiative, and realize that it’s an idea whose flame that should be extinguished – by the voters.