[Capr-announce] Initiative 22

[Rodney McFarland]

Citizens' Alliance for Property Rights has sponsored a King County
initiative to make the executive, council members, and the assessor
positions non-partisan.

Why should we change King County offices to non-partisan?  The Seattle
Times probably said it best on Monday, March 14, 2005, when they
reported, "Politically Sims' advantage begins with the 'D' that will
appear next to his name on the ballot."

The truth is that Ron Sims may be reelected because he will receive most
of his votes only because he is Democrat.  However, he would probably
lose if the race was non-partisan and was about issues, not party
labels.

Because King County elections are partisan, the liberal Seattle
contingent on the King County Council gets reelected year after year
without even having to face a challenger because no Democrat is willing
to run against a fellow Democrat in a partisan election.

That doesn't happen in Seattle City Council races where Democrats are
willing to challenge fellow Democrats all the time.  The result has been
a significant change in the make-up and culture of the city council.
For example, Heidi Wills, a Democrat who has the same extremist views as
Ron Sims, Larry Phillips and Dow Constantine, was replaced by a more
moderate Democrat in the 2003 elections.

We need to gather 60,000 signatures to qualify this initiative for the
ballot.  That is a lot of signatures and we only have about 80 days to
gather them so please don't delay returning your petitions. This is a
countywide initiative so registered voters who live anywhere in King
County can sign.

This is a great opportunity for us to show the Seattle politicians that
those of us in the rural area have the power to influence county
government.  Let's not blow it by failing to gather enough signatures!

Please contact Steve Finley at stevefinley at earthlink.net to have a
petition (or several if you would be willing to collect signatures)
mailed to you.

Rodney McFarland, President
Citizens' Alliance for Property Rights