After losing King County’s Proposition 1 by nearly 10 percent of the vote, Fuse Washington is changing their tune.
Fuse subjected its email subscribers to pre-mature victory laps for the last month. They trumpeted polls showing a landslide victory for the Move King County Now campaign all the while urging voters to vote.
Move King County Now—which included Fuse as a coalition member—was unstoppable. They had hundreds and thousands of dollars and hundreds of endorsers.
The left of liberal grassroots organization even put together a series of advertisements and press stunts they categorized as clever. Remember this and this?
Fuse exuded confidence…. which is probably why they are now struggling to understand what happened. In a recent email to supporters Fuse wrote,
“…we came up just short in our quest to Save Metro. We knew it was an uphill battle from the beginning, and low turnout — barely 1 out of 3 voters cast a ballot — doomed this measure.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be Fuse if they didn’t find some twisted way to point the figure at Republicans. Fuse,
“Senators Rodney Tom, Andy Hill, and their Republican caucus refused to even vote on a transportation package each of the last two years. The less than ideal funding options available for Proposition 1 were the direct result of their inaction. Proposition 1 wasn’t perfect, but it was our best available option to prevent deep bus cuts.”
Although the attempt is hopeless, here is a reality check for Fuse:
Prop 1 did not fail because of low voter turn-out. In fact, for a spur of the moment special election, turn-out was high. Prop 1 failed because voters are sick of throwing good money after bad. Voters no longer trust Metro with their tax dollars because they see Metro refuses to live within its means and initiate much needed reforms.
Finally, the Senate Majority Coalition Caucus presented a transportation bill this legislative session. Senate Democrats—led by Sen. Tracey Eide—and Gov. Jay Inslee killed the bill for purely political purposes. Eide actually admitted to preventing the transportation bill from coming to a vote because she needed “leverage” to raise taxes.
Transportation needs are not political games… it’s time Democrats and liberal organizations like Fuse come to that realization.