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Home / Washington Business - July/August 2006 / President's Message: Politics served on bumper stickers and in sound bites |
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President's Message: Politics served on bumper stickers and in sound bites |
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Written On: July/August 2006 |
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Written By: by Don C. Brunell - AWB President |
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Ever wonder why Tim Eyman wears all those long-sleeved T-shirts with nifty slogans like "Save Our $30 Car Tabs?"
He knows people will support his ballot measures if they understand and identify with them. In other words, if you can explain it on a bumper sticker, you win.
Eyman hit a raw nerve a few years ago with I-695, the measure repealing the state’s Motor Vehicle Excise Tax or MVET. He knew drivers were outraged when they paid through the nose to license their cars, trucks and RVs. Now he is counting on voters remembering when they forked over $700 to license their late-model SUV and is attempting to tap that reservoir of frustration to pass I-917, the so-called "$30 Car Tab Initiative."
There is much more to I-917, but facts aren’t the issue. It is the image in people’s minds that counts. The carefully crafted transportation funding program passed in 2005 doesn’t bring back the MVET, but adds a set of weight fees to fund projects to move freight, improve mass transit systems and remove unsafe railroad crossings. But those are details that take time to research and are too often hard to decipher in the fine print on the back of a ballot measure.
Sometimes, the most effective image isn’t on a bumper sticker. For example, last year Initiative 912, which would have repealed the 9.5-cent-per-gallon gas tax increase, failed because people saw Hurricane Katrina’s mass destruction in New Orleans and felt a renewed need to invest in roads and bridges. Then rockslides closed I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass just before the election, and the deal was sealed. If those sentiments were captured on a bumper sticker, the words would read, "Make Snoqualmie Pass Safe Again."
This November, Washington voters will be looking at another slate of complex, costly and controversial ballot measures. Odds are, they will go to the voting booth or sit down with their mail-in ballot and cast their votes without a clue as to the impact of those initiatives or referenda, but will remember a bumper sticker or a 30-second sound bite. Then the state will spend millions of dollars in court ferreting out what the initiatives really mean and do.
For example, the average voter may look at I-937, which is officially titled the "Renewable Energy Portfolio Initiative," and wonder what the heck it means and does. It sounds like something a stockbroker would dream up. It will be characterized as "Support Green Power" and will be accompanied by an image of a wind machine. The bumper sticker will create the impression that our electricity will come from wind machines, solar panels and cow manure.
Some of it will, but it is not as simple as supporting or opposing green power. There will be some serious implications if the I-937 passes. For example, will voters understand that requiring electric utilities to generate 15 percent of their electricity from green sources by 2020 may spike their power bills? Will they understand that some energy-intensive industries with high power costs may be forced to relocate or close if I-937 passes and electric rates soar? Will they realize that one of those lost jobs could be theirs? Probably not.
Over the last decade, voter frustration has spawned new opportunities. Creative entrepreneurs have set up a profitable industry drafting initiatives and selling them to the public. They have mastered the one-liners. People in America today want quick fixes and simple solutions, which do not translate easily into our traditional political structure.
Polls tell us that voters are cynical, distrustful and frustrated. Who can blame them when they look at the finger pointing, caustic attacks and gridlock in the nation’s capitol? Most people don’t give a hoot whether it’s a Democratic or Republican proposal, they just want their problems solved. And, most of all, they don’t understand why the politicians don’t get it.
So, whether we like it or not, we live in time when bumper stickers, catchy one-liners and 30-second sound bites rule. We just have to make sure that the campaigns we support remember that.
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