Initiative 122 – to publicly finance campaigns in Seattle – is an awful idea

There’s a bizarre and complicated new plan to publicly finance campaigns in Seattle and it’s going to be on the ballot in November. It’s called Initiative 122.

It’s being pushed by a group called Honest Elections Seattle and I always follow the belief that if someone tells you how honest they are, they may not be all that honest.

And in this case, the point is to get big money out of campaigns. Again, usually, when people want to get big money out of campaigns, they’re doing so because they want to make sure the business community and rich people don’t have influence in campaigns. In other words: Republicans.

This initiative, if passed, would allow candidates to opt into a system where all voters can give $100 “Democracy Vouchers” to donate to candidates of their choosing. This would apply to candidates running for city council, city attorney, or mayor. And they’re literally vouchers, actual paper coupons, so I’m assuming it would be somewhat pricey to make sure they can’t be made in some guy’s basement.

If a candidate opts into the system, they basically have to rely on this form of campaign funding and it makes the average low-income voter have the same dollars to spend as the rich Amazon executive. Parity!

Now, this entire process is incredibly complex. There are a bunch of restrictions on how much a campaign can spend, but it wouldn’t apply to folks outside of this system. It cuts on the amount individuals can give. It bans candidates from taking money from certain lobbyists.

But what I find most disturbing about this is the funding. How do you think this is funded?

Surprise, surprise: yet another property tax. It will take $30 million over a 10 year period, once again, bilking money from homeowners.

But even worse is you’re forcing homeowners to give money to candidates they may disagree with.

If you’re a hardcore conservative Tea Party Republican and you own a home, your tax dollars may go to Seattle City Council members Kshama Sawant or Mike O’Brien &#8212 two far left candidates.

And if you’re a hardcore liberal socialist progressive whatever homeowner, your tax dollars may go to a conservative. In fact, if this thing passes, I’m going to run for city council and I will take this money and I will squander it to make a point.

You’re forcing people to make political contributions and that seems patently un-American.

Now, they want to get big money out of campaigns – that’s the big goal. It’s why they limit the amount of money individuals can donate.

But here’s a bit of irony. The campaign, Honest Elections Seattle, has raised $236,000 so far. According to The Stranger, much of that money has come from one guy, one outsider &#8212 a New York investor by the name of Sean Eldridge. So one person has primarily funded a campaign to get big money out of elections and to prevent a select handful from having influence in elections.

Where’s the Irony Monster?!

This is yet another example of Seattle activists trying to push their utopian society because in their mind, this really helps the progressive who can’t compete against the evil, big business Republican &#8212 even though in Seattle politics, those hardly exist. In this world, they judge people on a progressive scale and the least progressive one is treated like they’re Republican.

But moreover, this is an assault on free speech because yes, money equals speech. They just don’t like that they don’t have enough money to be influential the way other rich people can be influential.

Notice they never seem to get mad at the rich who fund ideas and campaigns they like. They’ll happily take Sean Eldridge’s money. Liberal activist Tom Steyer spent $74 million in 2014 campaigns. He was the single biggest public spender in 2014. You didn’t hear him get called out by progressives. They were too busy pretending the Koch Brothers are evil.

Every time a campaign finance reform activist limits any contribution, understand that also limits you. In this case, it goes from $700 to $500 in local politics, but remember, I want you all to be rich. Every single one of you. I want you to get into a career where you prosper and make as much as humanly possible. I want to make as much as humanely possible. And like you, I’ll want to spend the money how I see fit to back candidates I think are best for this country, for this state, for my community. Anyone stopping me from doing that is the enemy of my success.

Initiative 122 is an awful, awful idea.