Newsletter

Happy holidays from Restore Washington

      Well, we certainly have a lot to be thankful for. While Washington remained an outlier, the rest of the country appears to have seen the light and moved in the right direction.
We are about to witness a very big change in every aspect of our federal government, and it can’t come soon enough.
       We are also thankful for all of you. Over the past 5 years you have stayed the course and helped us achieve what they said could no longer be done. With your help we managed to restart the initiative/ referendum process. In the end we qualified 2 referendums to the ballot and 6 initiatives to the legislature. We won one referendum on affirmative action ( R-88) and lost one on sex education( R-91). Three initiatives were passed by the legislature and three went in to defeat at the ballot box.  So in the end we broke even.
Without your efforts none of this would have been possible.
      The question is what’s next? Can any initiative withstand that kind of opposition and still pass?Can republicans gain seats in the house and senate as they did consistently from 2005 to 2016?   Is Washington doomed to be a progressive failure like California? Should we all pack up and move?
     Well, it certainly feels that way and I know many of you wonder if Washington is worth fighting for.
But to a large majority of people Washington is their home. They have family and/ or business here. They can’t easily pick up and leave. So unless we keep fighting they will suffer the consequences of bad government for years to come.
       Seeing California turn the corner gives us hope. Washington appears to be the last stand for progressive dominance. The question now is will Ferguson and company double down on progressive policies or read the writing on the wall and pull back?
Ferguson seems preoccupied with Trump. But his legislature is more progressive than ever with nearly all the moderate democrats gone. He is the one and only gate keeper at this point. While there is a lot of speculation, we probably won’t know until well into the session which way this is headed.
     We do know this. They are facing a very different budget situation this time with the first structural deficit in years. What will get cut, if anything? What taxes will get raised to cover their vast overspending. Will they lower the threshold as planned on capital gains or double down on the carbon tax? Again, we will have to wait and see, but this will be a very challenging session for the lefties to navigate and may provide opportunities for change at the same time.
      In the end we have always said that two things can change the direction of Washington state. Initiatives and elections. It is very apparent the initiative process is viable but the opposition is well funded. Elections have proven to be equally challenging. So where do we turn?
        The fact is the initiative process cannot be changed much under current majority. Unless we can find a very populist item that a majority can agree on it looks like that road is very difficult at this point. Elections are different however. The failures there are our own. We were winning seats every year in the federal, statewide, and legislative elections from 2005 to about 2017. From 2018 forward we haven’t won a thing and have lost ground in every sector. What changed?
     A ton of research is being done on this to see not only what changed but why Washington was the only state not to move right. Initial indications are pretty clear. The Republican brand is at an all time low in Washington. A recent poll showed Trump as more popular than republicans in general in this state.
    While there is plenty of blame to go around for this situation it really boils down to a couple of things that are within our control. Unity is one of them. Republicans have spent more time and resources fighting each other than the opposition and the results are bad for all factions of the group. The other is a sound stategy based on election principles which have held true for 100’s of years.
      The party as a whole has abandoned these winning principles for a more emotional based approach that has proven to fail 3 cycles in a row. Putting up sub standard candidates without the experience or resources to win is and will always be a losing  proposition. There is no exception to be had in the entire US electorate. The thinking we had to go more conservative in moderate swing districts was a complete failure losing two major congressional districts and giving the democrats a super majority in the legislature. It has also shut us out of all statewide offices. In the process the party had lost  all credibility and is for all practical purposes broke as major donors flee the sinking ship.
   The fact is conservatives in this state cannot succeed without moderates and moderates can’t win without conservative votes. If republicans as a whole cannot come to this conclusion and work together our work here is done and the party is for all practical purposes over.
    Restore Washington  is taking the initiative to communicate with republicans leaders from across the state to see if there can be some consensus to a path forward. To see if the winning formula we had for many years can be brought back to life. To see if the Republican brand can be repaired and credibility restored.
       It’s a task that won’t be easy and may take some time. A lot will depend on what the progressives do or don’t do in this session. History says they can’t help themselves and will likely continue down the road to the same destination all progressives face. That would be a place of failure like so many before them. In that lies an opportunity for real change. We just saw it happen across the USA. We believe it can and will happen here.
The question remains. Will we be ready to take that opportunity when it presents itself? Can we put together a product that people actually want to buy. Research consistently tells us that people aren’t so much voting for democrats as they are voting against us . That is the challenge before us.
       You have helped us make history in the initiative process. While the results were not what we hoped for the effort was well worth the time and resources invested.We proved it could be done.  At the same time we have provided timely and effective information to all of you on a daily basis. We will continue to do so in the coming weeks.
        We have a forward plan based on sound principles that have stood the test of time. We believe it is the change we need to regain our footing. . We are, in effect, taking the lead like we have so many times before.  We will keep you posted on our progress in developing and promoting  the “Next” chapter in our quest to Restore Washington. Have a wonderful holiday knowing the country is moving in the right direction and so can we. RW