Predictions from an I-695 supporter ...

1) the Socialist Washington State Courts will overturn I-695 2) the WA Legislature will pass new laws putting major restraints on the Initiative process. Clyde Ballard and the Republicans will work just as hard as the Dems to choke the Initiative process. No establishment legislator can tolerate the direct democracy of the Initiative process. The REPUBLICRATS will "improve" democracy.

In 1995 (after Linda Smith won by write-in ballot) the Legislature put the choke hold on the Write-In Ballot process (see RCW 29.04.180 & RCW 29.62.180), that EMBARGOES your write-in vote for certain classes of candidates.

Kiss your Initiative process goodbye!

- from the Soviet of Seattle. (King County government just got a proxy on the Seattle City Council = Heidi Wills; Ron Sims influence EXPANDS faster than taxes contract)

-- Soviet_Seattle (bb094@scn.org), November 04, 1999

Answers

It would not surprise me if the politicians try to block both of the powers that our constitution reserved to the people, the initiative and the referendum. They have already destroyed the referendum due to the Supreme Court that allowed the Mariners stadium to be declared an emergency. Now virtually every bill is declared to be an emergency, exempt from the referendum process. I-695 will motivate the politicians to eliminate the initiative process as well.

What can we do? Four seats on the supreme court are on the next election. We can make sure that no lawyer who has been in the legislature or is otherwise identifiable as a politician, gets elected to the supreme court. We should vote for a lawyer who has private practice experience and public service in the judicial branch only. We must never elect legislators to the courts, as this violates the separation of powers principle.

-- Art Rathjen (liberty@coastaccess.com), November 04, 1999.

Right on! It is of interest to note that almost all of the really important laws that have been adopted lately were enacted by the Initiative and Referendum process, not by the legislature; I- 593 "Three Strikes you're Out", I-200 "Eliminate Quotas", etc.

-- Albert Fosha (AFosha@aol.com), November 04, 1999.

And I forgot I-601, the spending cap.

-- Albert Fosha (AFosha@aol.com), November 04, 1999.