If the Democrats in Olympia won’t take on the archconservative
Building Industry Association of Washington (the cowering Democratic
house leadership snuffed important homebuyers’ protection
legislation at the BIAW’s request last week), Democratic voters
should step up and take on the lobby themselves.
By running an initiative guaranteeing homebuyers the right to sue
builders for faulty work (that’s what the failed bill would have done),
progressives can (1) get a necessary law on the books, and, by
draining the BIAW’s coffers with a ballot fight, (2) slap down the
BIAW. These are two things the Democrats in Olympia don’t seem
capable of doing themselves.
In fact, as the legislative session in Olympia wraps up, the
Democrats—scared of using their majority because it might inspire
a voter backlash—don’t seem capable of much at all. (Sigh. What’s
the point of protecting your numbers if you’re not going to use them in
the first place?)
Here are 10 other bills that got killed this session: a bill
to make global warming a litmus test for new development; a bill to
outlaw plastic grocery-store bags; a bill to regulate payday-loan
interest rates; a bill to expand family leave; a bill to provide a
working-family tax credit; a bill to cap condo conversions; a bill to
stop mentally ill people from getting handguns; a bill to prevent
landlord discrimination against Section 8 tenants; a couple of bills to
stop strip mining on Maury Island; a bill to protect student free
speech.
Ultimate disappointment in the Democrats came to a head late
last week, though, when Senator Brian Weinstein’s (D-41, Mercer Island)
homebuyers-rights legislation—which had become a bellwether
bill for the Democrats after leadership chickened out and
killed it last year—got killed again. House Speaker Frank Chopp
(D-43, Wallingford) kowtowed to the BIAW and let the bill rot in
committee.
It’s maddening that Chopp would kiss up to the BIAW (which also had
a hand in killing the global-warming bill mentioned above). The BIAW,
through its maze of political committees—such as the
Washington Affordable Housing Council—pours millions into
GOP coffers. (They also donate to Chopp.) They have pledged to elect
archconservative GOP gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi.
Since the BIAW is so hung up on Senator Weinstein’s bill, someone
should run it as an initiative this fired-up fall. Just as last year’s
insurance-claim ballot measure, R-67, forced the insurance industry to
lay out millions in an unsuccessful effort to kill consumer rights,
taking the homebuyer bill to the ballot would similarly screw the BIAW.
They’d be diverted from bankrolling Rossi and GOP legislative
candidates.
You have until July 3 to turn in 224,800 signatures. If the
Democrats won’t use their numbers, Democratic voters should use theirs.
