Paul Queary, a veteran AP reporter and editor, is founder of The Washington Observer, an independent newsletter on politics, government and the influence thereof in Washington State.
The campaign against repealing the state’s cap-and-trade system for major emitters of carbon pollution rolled out a splashy new slate of donors, including two of the larger sources of said emissions.
The campaign money almost certainly won’t be there for Semi Bird. Major Republican donors are thus far conspicuously absent from the party’s balance sheet this year. In fact, things are looking a bit threadbare over there.
With key Democratic leaders retiring, the race is on for a new state Senate majority leader. Meanwhile, at least five new members means a brand-new dynamic in the State Senate.
Ideas never die in Olympia, but since the Legislature works on a biennial cycle, the bills pushing up daisies this week will stay in the grave at least until 2025 unless they get the zombie budget treatment.
The Senate version currently would impose a 15% limit on rent increases, with an exemption for newly built housing. Local jurisdictions could impose tighter restrictions. If Sen. Cleveland doesn’t sign off on the bill, it would likely die for the year.
Even very limited versions of this idea – broadly known as “school choice” – have been DOA in Olympia for decades thanks to the combined influence of the teachers’ unions and local school districts. Conventional wisdom would have predicted the same fate had such an idea come before voters.
We could be looking at a new era of ballot initiative politics, in which conservatives routinely force statewide votes to rein in the more progressive inclinations of Democratic lawmakers and governors.