770 KTTH hosts outline their election picks

On Monday’s David Boze Show, 770 KTTH hosts David Boze and Michael Medved shared their thoughts on some of the candidates and issues on this November’s ballot.

State Senate 26th District – Nathan Schlicher (D) vs. Jan Angel (R)

The ongoing power struggle in the Washington state Senate has made this race in an off-year election the most expensive legislative contest in state history.

A predominantly Republican Majority Coalition Caucus controls the Senate with the help of two Democrats, giving the majority caucus a one-vote advantage in the chamber.

Republicans would like to increase the cushion of their hold of the upper chamber heading into the 2014 elections that will see half of the Senate up for re-election.

Boze: The biggest race really in this state right now, set aside the initiatives, is Jan Angel’s race. If she can pull that off, that gives the Republican coalition there just the tiniest bit of breathing room.

Medved: It should be so eye opening to folks that right here in the Puget Sound area, in the Tacoma area, you have competitive races that Republicans can win. We should be competing everywhere.

Initiative 522

Initiative 522 would require foods containing genetically engineered ingredients to carry a label.

A group fighting food labeling in Washington state has busted the record for the most money raised by an initiative campaign in state history.

Largely financed by five biotechnology giants and a food industry group, the “No on 522” committee has raised nearly $22 million to defeat the initiative.

Initiative supporters have raised about $6.8 million, mostly from natural food companies and others.

Boze: I voted no. I did see a big, huge sign up on the freeway on my way home and they were quite excited about it, but I thought, waste of space.

Medved: You’ve got to vote no on that because first of all, genetically-modified food is terrific and really is a way of dealing with world hunger.

If you vote yes on 522, you’re voting yes for environmental freak jobs who basically want to shut down capitalism.

The point is that a genetically-modified kernel of corn is not measurably different. You can’t look at that kernel of corn and say, ah this has some different qualities than the original corn.

The genetic modifications have to do with the ease of growing the stuff, the ease of producing the stuff. They don’t have to do with the nature of the stuff itself.

Initiative 517

Initiative 517 is the “initiative on initiatives” that would make it easier to get such measures on the ballot.

The proposal, Initiative 517, was sparked in part by a series of legal battles over local measures seeking to block red light cameras, including one case last year that went to the state Supreme Court.

By requiring that voters be allowed to have their say on any proposal that qualifies for the ballot, even if a lawsuit has been filed against it, the initiative pushes back at cities that have sued, some successfully, to block local challenges to the cameras.

The initiative also would give supporters a year, instead of the current six months, to collect signatures, and it would make it a misdemeanor to interfere with the signature-gathering process.

Business groups and others have lined up in opposition, saying the proposal will affect their ability to deal with nuisances outside of their stores.

Boze: Initiative 517, I thought, was much more difficult, the Eyman initiative, because there were parts of it I really liked, and parts of it I didn’t like.

I liked the idea of being friendly to the initiative process. I think a lot of city governments and politicians have been very unfriendly to the initiative process and trying to thwart people.

At the same time, I really had a problem with the idea of forcing private businesses to have people collect signatures in front of their stores.

Medved: So did I, that’s why I ended up voting no on it. The other reason I voted no on it is because Rob McKenna, who I really do think is a great voice in state government – was a terrific attorney general, should be our governor – Rob is so strongly against it.

I don’t think it’s tough in this state to get an initiative on the ballot. I certainly don’t think it’s too tough.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.