Pundit Country

According to Public Policy Polling (emphasis mine):

The vast majority of opposition to health care and allowing gays to serve openly in the military is coming from people who already say there’s no chance they’ll vote Democratic this fall. That’s an indication of minimal fallout for Congressional Democrats by acting on these issues.

37% of Americans say they will definitely not vote Democratic for Congress this year. 34% say they definitely will and that leaves roughly 30% of the country up for grabs.

Right now 50% of voters say they oppose President Obama’s health care plan to just 39% in support. Digging a little deeper on those numbers though 64% of respondents planning or open to voting Democratic this fall support it with only 22% opposed. The overall numbers are negative only because of 94/1 opposition among folks who have said there is no way they’ll vote Democratic this fall.

and quite relevant now that Washington state is facing R-71 in a couple of months.

[update 9/1]: Well, it looks as if I was wrong. Publicola published a story today (with a somewhat misleading headline) indicating that in July she was asked about R-71 in a Federal Way forum and she claims to support the measure, although they noted her response was predictably “nuanced” (their word). Her response is that while she thought the bill “had some exaggerations in it”, she generally believed in the cause of equality.

And if you find yourself asking what she meant by “exaggerations”, she didn’t specify (hint to Dow’s campaign: make her).

Also worth noting is that unlike Constantine, it was her campaign who responded to the question rather than the candidate herself. I’m guessing she doesn’t want to be on the record supporting a measure that her financial backers will be spending a great deal of money to try and defeat.

(original post from Aug. 31)

Now that Referendum 71, which calls for voters to affirm the “everything by marriage” law recently passed by the state legislature and signed into law by Gregiore, has made the November ballot, Publicola reporters asked around to all the relevant local candidates to see what their position was on the referendum. Constantine, who is touting his credentials as a progressive Democrat (although the race for KC Exec is officially non-partisan) said the following:

“While this is disappointing news, we must come together as a community and affirm an important law that speaks to our core values and is a long overdue step for equality.

“I remain confident that Washington State voters – and particularly the people of King County — will stand up for fairness by upholding the state’s domestic partnership bill. That bill recognizes the right of people in committed domestic partnerships to full legal protections—in effect, to the creation of full civil unions for gay and lesbian couples in Washington State.”

Front runner Susan Hutchison’s campaign has yet to respond to the request for a comment. Most likely because this puts her into a bit of a corner. Clearly a conservative Republican by her associations, affiliations, and previous statements, Hutchison needs to appeal to the largely Democratic voters of King County, most of whom, it is believed support the measure of granting full rights to same-sex couples. However, she also clearly doesn’t want to alienate her conservative donors, some of whom fought vigorously to get this on the ballot in the first place.

My prediction? If she responds at all (which I doubt, unless pressed by the media, bloggers or the Constantine campaign), it will be in the vaguest language possible in an attempt to keep people guessing about her position. Remember this is the whole strategy here; allow people to place their values upon her with her campaign revealing as little as possible about her views on any actual issues. The public cannot let let her get away with that.

Related articles

• Domestic partnerships: Will religious right rise? (seattlepi.com)
• Anti-gay rights ref. signature check tops 100k (seattlepi.com)

The Washington state Referendum 71 petition has been out now for several days looking for people to sign it so that they can ask voters to repeal the recently passed “anything but marriage” law that gave same-sex partners vitually all the same benefits of hetero married couples except for the title.

Equal Washington, a coalition of several LGBT and LGBT-allied groups have banded together to form a “Decline to Sign” campaign in order to prevent the measure from going to the ballor. According to David Goldstein over at Horse’s Ass, these types of campaigns have proved to be very successful in the past.

However, my question is do we (the LGBT/Allied/Progressive community ) really want to see it off the ballot? Considering the incredibly truncated time frame in which their supporters have had to gather signatures, doesn’t that give them all the more incentive to come back next session and try this again? Wouldn’t a better strategy be to get it on the ballot now, defeat it with a comfortable margin, and end  this argument for the time being?

I’d appreciate your thoughts on this.

Related articles

• It’s Only a Matter of Time (blakehuggins.com)
• Gregoire praises controversial Obama domestic partner move (seattlepi.com)
• The growing debate surrounding WhoSigned.org (mardod.com)