Did Washington just earn its most liberal state of the country award? (Buckley: move to, areas)

[Ira500]

And looking at the statewide results for 1240, the Charter Schools measure, it won statewide, but King County rejected it, along with a lot of traditionally conservative counties. Go figure.

[BellevueNative]

Originally Posted by PS90

Uhhh, what's your point? Semantics don't change the fact that the vast majority of the state's democratic decisions are controlled by a large, isolated group of people who just happen to have the greater population in a very small geographic area. I'm not StealthRabbit, but it seems to me that was the point he/she was making, and I don't see how that point can be argued.

I stole this from the website that "509" just referenced, but I think it makes a clear point on said division, re: Ref-74:

Referendum Measure No. 74 Concerns marriage for same-sex couples

My point is it doesn't matter where one lives in the state - in the end, everyone has one vote, and the team with the most votes wins. It doesn't matter if a large group of people live in one "very small geographic area" - it's not as if King County is awarded extra votes or power. It isn't. People in King County tend to vote in certain patterns, just as people in Spokane County vote in patterns. Do you think that Ferry County, with a tiiiiiiiiiny population, should get to cast the same number of votes as King County? That would not be fair, and it would be reckless. The way our elections are done now is as fair and equal as we can probably make it. Your vote has as much power as mine. In fact, there are plenty of us here in King County that feel that voters on the eastern side of the state hold us hostage to certain laws. For example, I-74 has been approved by 65% in King County, but it is going to barely pass because many other individuals - many on the eastern side of the mountains, but in parts of western Washington, as well - rejected it.

The battle of Western Washington vs. Eastern Washington that some people in this thread keep bringing up has nothing to do with geography and everything to do with differences in ideology. People choose where they wish to live, and some people settle on one side of the mountains based on ideology. That helps them when it comes to selecting their own local Reps in congress (state and federal), but it has nothing to do with the outcome of statewide measures like 74, 502 and others, where each vote is counted the same and equally regardless of where one lives, and majority wins.

[BellevueNative]

Originally Posted by Ira500

And looking at the statewide results for 1240, the Charter Schools measure, it won statewide, but King County rejected it, along with a lot of traditionally conservative counties. Go figure.

Maybe we should start saying, "Voters in King County rejected it..." instead of saying, "King County rejected it." Statewide initiatives should be focused on the total of votes, period...counties do not get a vote, the people within them get a vote. Counties are simply the ones that mail out and count the ballots for statewide initiatives. Yes, patterns emerge within counties, but it's never all-or-nothing even in the most conservative or liberal of counties.

[509]

Bellevue native.....

Your right about one vote being one vote.

The issue of between west/east is not due to voting or political orientation. That is a smoke screen.

It is Gov. Locke stopping the central Washington PUD's from providing fiber optic services to their owners.

It is about the city of Seattle REQUIRING that their garbage be DUMPED in eastern Washington.

It is about the TWO senators from western Washington opposing conversion of the N Reactor to produce medical isotopes.

It is about the University of Washington lobbying the Legislature to stop a heart transplant center at Spokane hospitals.

AND the list goes on......but you get the drift.

THOSE are the things that divide the state....not the votes on initiatives.

[backdrifter]

Originally Posted by PS90

Uhhh, what's your point? Semantics don't change the fact that the vast majority of the state's democratic decisions are controlled by a large, isolated group of people who just happen to have the greater population in a very small geographic area. I'm not StealthRabbit, but it seems to me that was the point he/she was making, and I don't see how that point can be argued.

I stole this from the website that "509" just referenced, but I think it makes a clear point on said division, re: Ref-74:

Referendum Measure No. 74 Concerns marriage for same-sex couples

A vast majority of the state's democratic decisions are controlled by the vast majority of the state's population of voters. It is irrelevant if they fill a small geographic area or a large one.

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by BellevueNative

Maybe we should start saying, "Voters in King County rejected it..." instead of saying, "King County rejected it." Statewide initiatives should be focused on the total of votes, period...counties do not get a vote, the people within them get a vote. Counties are simply the ones that mail out and count the ballots for statewide initiatives. Yes, patterns emerge within counties, but it's never all-or-nothing even in the most conservative or liberal of counties.

I think it's understood by most when someone says "King County rejected it" they're not saying that the official position of the county government was against it. When the networks reported that Obama took Florida, nobody thought that Obama went to Tallahassee with troops, and "took" the state.
Those maps show what percentage of each country 's voters approved and rejected, and each county is shaded one of two colors, depending on whether they approved or rejected it. On same sex marriage, only in five or six counties did the majority of the county's voters approve, but the populations of those counties were large enough to carry the whole state. But with charter schools, the majority of King County's voter's rejected it, but other large urban county's voters supported it, and some rural Eastern Washington's county voters also rejected it. I'm just perplexed why a conservative Eastern Washingtonian would be opposed to charter schools.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by PS90

Uhhh, what's your point? Semantics don't change the fact that the vast majority of the state's democratic decisions are controlled by a large, isolated group of people who just happen to have the greater population in a very small geographic area. .

Demographics of that region can also be telling...
Are the majority:
employers (or SE / farmers) or employees? Measures have a HUGE impact on costs and regulation of business (but VERY different personal / immediate impact to Employers vs. employees)
What % of earnings of this demographic gets paid directly to WA state in the form of Taxes and Fees? (don't you suppose THAT is very different too?, and WAY different ideas about measures / candidates (representatives?))

Do you inderstand WHO is generating the WA STATE revenues that FUND all these measures / non-representatives?
(Hint... it is NOT the average wage earner (employee)/ renter in WA state)

Life in WA is VERY ugly and rough for the bulk of employers / land owners / producers ALL 39 counties, and there is VERY little representation for the dudes with their nose to the grindstone, rather than sitting in a coffee shop writing political blogs on their PAID breaks. And their Copious FREE time (cuz they don't have to work 24x7 to meet "Their Employees" payroll and fill out WA regs).

[kanhawk]

Originally Posted by downnice

Weed and SSM

So happy right now

A state with no income tax and and very little gun control would not qualify as the most liberal state IMO. I believe the state also just passed more restrictions on the government's ability to raise taxes... er, at least I think that's what I-1185 did, even though it was confusingly written. We certainly elect a lot of liberal politicians in the state, but then put a fiscal strait jacket on them to keep them from their worst impulses. Washington leans left, but did you see what California just did?
Most liberal state, I think not.
Now excuse me while I go light up.

[kanhawk]

Originally Posted by Ira500

I'm just perplexed why a conservative Eastern Washingtonian would be opposed to charter schools.

As someone who used to live in rural eastern Washington I'll take a crack at answering that. Rural and small town public schools there are generally supported by the local populations. The rural schools usually don't get involved in a lot of the controversial issues you see in more suburban and urban school systems. While they may not have a lot of money for the schools, they still provide a safe, relatively disciplined environment with a more traditional method of teaching that satisfies the local population who don't see a need for any alternatives such as charter schools. They are also fearful, wrongly I think, that this might take away financial support from their local schools.
I too was surprised 1240 passed so narrowly.

[PS90]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Life in WA is VERY ugly and rough for the bulk of employers / land owners / producers ALL 39 counties, and there is VERY little representation for the dudes with their nose to the grindstone, rather than sitting in a coffee shop writing political blogs on their PAID breaks. And their Copious FREE time (cuz they don't have to work 24x7 to meet "Their Employees" payroll and fill out WA regs).

Completely agree. And furthermore, although I have no data on this, I would be willing to be that the percentage of non-native Washingtonians in Western WA is astronomically higher than Eastern WA. Which makes the notion of "if you don't like it, move somewhere else" that King County Residents love to employ, that much more ironic.