The knee-jerk, government-shouldn’t-be-in-the-booze-business crowd will have plenty to drink to when Costco’s $22 million Initiative 1183 wins tonight—and it will win, by a comfortable margin—but you booze-hounds are missing the bigger picture: Washington’s initiative process is now officially open to the highest corporate bidder.
Yeah, I know, it’s been heading in that direction since Tim Eyman first made a lucrative profession of it back in the late 1990s, but I-1183 and last year’s Coke & Pepsi sponsored I-1107 mark a turning point in our history when large corporations finally started spending tens of millions of dollars in pursuit of hundreds of millions of dollars in returns. It’s great for stockholders, but will ultimately prove to be a disaster for the citizens of Washington state, when corporate interests with unlimited resources dive into the business of directly marketing to voters self-serving policies that could never survive a deliberative legislative process.
But, you know, I’m rational enough to admit defeat. And since we have neither the political will nor skill to reform the initiative process, from here on out it will only get worse. Yet another way in which Washington, politically, is totally fucked.
So enjoy the hundreds of millions of extra dollars Costco will ultimately earn from selling jugs of Kirkland brand vodka in Washington state, Mr. Sinegal, but don’t you ever again pretend that you are some sort of responsible corporate citizen, because you’re not. And you’ll never get another dime of my business again.
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Yeah! Walmart’s cheaper, anyway.
And just how much did you spend at Costco last year, Goldy?
More to the point – you’re telling me that that corporations sponsor self-serving voter initiatives? Or, in the case of our state’s liquor wholesalers, sometime self-servingly fight voter initiatives? Heaven forbid!
if we had a deliberative legislative process anymore i might be more upset. perhaps it’s the initiative process that needs to go.
who gives a shit – all I wanna know is, can I buy some hootch at QFC on my way home tonight?
Goldy, I expect you to keep on top of the youth-drinking and DUI stats you used to scare people into voting no, and reporting honestly about what they show, even (and especially) if they do NOT increase.
I’m with you, Goldy.
This is an outrageous perversion of Representative Democracy…Oligarchy, American Style.
Yeah, because if liquor distributors had just spent more to defeat 1183, it would have been a triumph of democracy over corporate money.
Geez, Goldy, you’re not even trying anymore. “Private liquor sales BAD corporate money!!!”, “red light cameras GOOD corporate money!!!”, repeat as needed.
At least Mudede is consistent in his nonsense (or so unintelligible it’s hard to call him a hypocrite). You’ve got seemingly random positions that you support with contradictory arguments. I’m embarrassed for you.
Oh please. Whining about money is just what losers do when they can’t accept that the voters think differently than they do. Be it Eyman or otherwise.
The problem is not money in politics, it’s lazy and stupid voters.
I like 1183 and hate Eyman.
waaa waaa waaa jeebus Goldy. Change the fucking record will ay?
So you don’t like the means used to secure the passage of the initiative. Fine. What about the ends to be achieved? Do you actually have anything to say about the merits of the legislation?
Oh, Goldy? This is another example of your laziness. Did you know that we had a school board race here in Denver that attracted over $400k in spending by both sides?
Corporate money is everywhere, and the passage of one initiative in a coastal state that is demographically a flyover state had little, if any, impact in that development.
Goldy isn’t getting any……
It’s Costco that wrote the state’s constitution, right? No? Well, at least they’re responsible for the interpretation of the law that got the initiative process to its current broken state, right? No? Well then, how dare anyone or anything use an existing process to further their own interests.
The initiative process will ultimately kill us all. I’m sick of people who get worked up about a state initiative but can’t name a single one of their representatives in Olympia.
there are endless examples, but the initiative process in this state is some of the best evidence to support the conclusion that… american democracy=’dead as fucking dead’.*
*in the words of eric stoltz
This is why I don’t sign Initiative petitions.
Actually, one of my solutions for ending the current wealth imbalance is to try and find Super Luxury Goods that only the rich can afford…and want.
So I have suggested that we openly sell Senate Seats for say, $1B dollars. We’d end up with the same jokers anyway, but this time the money would go back into our pockets.
Same with Initiatives. Make the fee for any Initiatives about, oh, $50 million to $500 million. Make it $1 billion if you want to guarantee it will win. Revenue problem solved.
California has had this problem for at least a decade, and maybe two. Votes are absolutely for sale via advertising. If it didn’t work, corporations wouldn’t spend all of those billions (trillions?) on it.
Shame on us for providing such an exploitable political system. Blaming a corporation for making the most of it is like blaming a lion for being “vicious”. It is in their nature. We, the people need to take back control of our political system.
From everything I’ve read, Costco is actually a very good corporate citizen, as far as corporations go, which might not be saying tooo much. I understand that they are very good to their employees, and are union-friendly.
http://www.seattlepi.com/business/articl…
Costco is probably one of the most subjectively ethical places you could shop for most items they carry, especially alcohol and groceries.
Also, we’ve all heard the rumor from “someone that totally knows” that Kirkland brand vodka is made by Grey Goose, so… there’s that, if that’s your thing.
I’m pretty sure Goldsteinberg is leaving Costco because they stopped carrying those extra small Trojans the boys from Sigma Alpha Mu like.
It already was open to the highest bidder.
This is taking toys and going home at its worst. I suppose that last time when the distributor monopoly pushed cash into killing non state run liquor, you protested by no longer buying from your local retailer?
Having high moral standards is hard to apply when you watching the outcome of two assholes fighting.
@ 20, don’t bother posting facts like that here. Liquor is eeeeeeeeeevviiiiiiiiiilllllllllllllll….
Sour grapes!
Your tears of rage are delicious.
The dipshit “No on 1183” people didn’t do themselves any favors by running a campaign based on scare tactics and lies.
“FIREFIGHTERS and POLICEMEN say 1183 will GET OUR CHILDREN DRUNK and RAPE THEM and puts us at TOO MUCH RISK of complete ANARCHY and it will also BURN DOWN ORPHANAGES in our VULNERABLE VIRGINAL COMMUNITIES”
Seriously, y’all? You can’t campaign against it based on it being a giant cash-grab by a corporation? You have to break out the “think of the children” bullshit?
Frankly I’m almost glad Costco won even though I don’t like 1183. I’d hate to hand the race over to a bunch of fearmongering dickholes.
oh please. like corporations have never bought politics before.
Fuck off goldy.
I would take the Koch brother’s money if it would drive a stake through the heart of the WSLCB. I’m fucking tired of this state having a morality police, and this is the first step in destroying it.
I never paid any attention at all to the pros and cons of this initiative. All I needed to know was that a corporation, not able to get the result they wanted from the legislature, decided to write their own law and buy it via the initiative process. Kemper Freeman is doing the same thing with 1125. It’s disgusting. These matters should be decided by elected officials.
Because the beer and wine distributors that have a monopoly on grocery sales now and funded the no vote weren’t buying your votes?
Goldy’s ridonkulous posturing shows off his effete and impudent snobbery attempting to masquerade his temperate moral nannyism on the evils of liquor.
So if this initiative were to fail it would be a victory for the little people who fought bravely for our children and the millions of people who will be destroyed in the carnage on our roads, right?
Because it was little people who bankrolled the opposition, right?
For a smart guy you write some stupid shit, Goldy. And threatening a boycott, with all that stuff you must buy at Costco on the pitiful salary Keck pays you? Weak.
It’s still up to the voters, look at how many initiatives Tim Eyman have failed…I-267 & I-745 in particular (bankrolled by the Construction industry). Hell, just look at I-933. All of these initiatives failed at the ballot box despite being wholly financed by special interests.
When you sit back and try to figure out why your political opinion carries zero weight with most folks, refer back to this post (or, you know, the last dozen or so).
You just don’t have the analytical skills for the job. You’re loud, though, so there’s that.
Good, you’re not wanted there. Only those who like supporting local businesses / employers should go there. The Stranger likes neither.
I wish I could’ve voted NO against both campaigns. NO against buying your way onto the ballot, and buying all those YES votes, with millions of corporate dollars, and NO against the anti’s campaign of outrageous lies and overt misinformation.
The only thing I could do, in good conscience, was vote NO against all the intiatives because they used big money to buy their way onto the ballot, a total corruption of the initiative process. Our constitution’s framers would roll over in their graves if they knew that the process they created had been so co-opted by big moneyed interests.
@30, the legislature has been too chickenshit to look at this issue for 80 years. The temperance movement is alive and well in the likes of MADD and churches. They are very activist on this issue. I’m glad Costco stood up to them.
You’re all fucking missing the point, perhaps intentionally, perhaps because you’re to stupid to get it. This isn’t about this initiative, it’s about the initiative process in general, which has pretty much made Washington state a turf war for big corporations to fight over.
The initiative process is almost always the wrong way to legislate. That was my point when I stumbled into politics with my “Horse’s Ass” initiative, and that is my point today.
So then Goldy why haven’t you been spouting this “anti-initiative” process from the get go?
Your side lost when it came to booze in 1933. This is just mopping up some leftovers, on that front.
Re: the initiative process, why not try to get the whole thing removed via your PAC if we hate it so much?
@38 And next year it may make us the first state to legalize marijuana. Good and bad things come from it. At the end of the day we all have the same vote and if we decide to buy ad campaigns well that is really our fault. It is trivially easy to educate yourself on these things.
@39 because he’s been childishly and annoyingly dancing around the fact he just doesn’t like for people to have easier access to booze. Seriously, it’s annoying. Man the fuck up and just say it outright. You’re willing to speak up and out about damn never everything else, which is awesome, but it’s fucking tiring on this front.
This whole charade was a lose – lose situation. The opponents lied through their teeth and played the fear card, and the proponents finally spent enough to get their way. And what do we get? An end to the WSLCB stores, which weren’t really a problem and an increase in the WSLCB enforcement wing, which consists primarily of teetotalling fascist assholes with giant chips on their shoulders, hellbent on fucking over every underpaid server in the state who makes an honest mistake. Personally, I left that item blank on my ballot – I could not in good conscience vote for either shitty alternative.
Yes we’re all hypnotized hill folk Goldy and we need the wisdom of public employee unions to guide us.
Seriously, Goldy? Your response to a negative reception of your post is to jump into the comments thread and, no exaggeration, say, “NUH-UH, YOU’RE ALL STUPID!”?
Some fucking journalist.
We get your “point” Goldy, ill-defined and misguided as it is.
Corporations have always had an inordinate sway in politics, initiatives or no. You’re just fixating on this because one particularly well known company is associated with it. Normally I’d be upset over this, but I realize the anti 1183 money is just as corporate and polluting as the pro 1183 money. It’s just that the anti 1183 oligarchy is less recognizable and makes for a poorer strawman for folks with an agenda. Folks like you.
Ultimately, my views just happen to align with Costco’s on this one. And I’ve noticed that most folks voting for this initiative have followed the same thought process. We’re not voting for a company, we’re happening to agree with them on this particular subject.
@ 38, “You’re all fucking missing the point, perhaps intentionally, perhaps because you’re to stupid to get it.”
I’m honestly laughing at this. You really have no respect for anyone who doesn’t blow smoke up your ass, do you?
We’ve all read your hysterical anti-1183 posts, which finally stopped because you probably couldn’t reasonably address the issue. We KNOW you have a huge emotional investment. We also KNOW that corporate money in the initiative process is not new, not in any way unique to this ballot measure, and even the scale of money spent tells us nothing in the post Citizens United world. You’re just acting out.
Oh noes, condemned to by toilet paper what, six rolls at a time only? And from some neighborhood store rather than the nearest Mega-Lo-Mart? Barbaric.
“Buy.” Oops.
Goldy if you like top-down government so much take your condescending ass back east where you belong. Apparently a majority of King County and the state like having a say how THEIR money is spent.
@50 you’re managing to raise the level of stupid to new heights with your Lil Teatard routine.