Both Parties Seek Edge From Ballot Measures Democrats, Gop Hope Transportation, Affirmative Action Translate Into Votes

Washington’s election-year legislative session is one for the history books now, but two of the biggest and most politically charged issues won’t be settled for nearly eight more months.

Voters will be asked in November to approve a highway funding plan that would raise $2.4 billion to tackle some of the worst traffic problems in the United States while managing to cut vehicle taxes and leave the gas tax unchanged.

And Washington will offer the only state-wide vote expected this year on one of the hottest social questions of the day - whether affirmative action still is needed or should yield to “equal rights” without government preferences for minorities and women.

The gambit could help determine political control of the Legislature because the two issues will be on the same ballot containing legislative and congressional candidates.

Both measures were sponsored and endorsed by the majority Republicans who see the issues as part of their ticket to re-election. And they see both as case studies in why the GOP approach to government is better.

Democrats, meanwhile, are busy reframing the issues as “roads vs. schools” on the one hand and narrow-minded meanness by social reactionaries on the other.

They see both measures as reasons to turn back to their party in the Legislature.

Democrats also may mount a competing ballot-box offensive. They’re talking about backing their own measure on affirmative action and also say they expect to gather enough signatures to earn a ballot spot for a get-out-the-vote initiative to boost the state’s minimum wage.

House Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee, and Senate Majority Leader Dan McDonald, R-Bellevue, insist they didn’t set out to place measures on the ballot that would stimulate GOP turnout.

It just happened that way for a variety of reasons, they say.

“We sit around and speculate about that stuff, but you can’t depend on it” to guarantee Republican victories, Ballard says.

But GOP party leaders and campaign consultants don’t disguise their pleasure at running Republican candidates on the same ballot as the transportation and affirmative action initiatives.

Brett Bader, a GOP campaign strategist, says, “There is a big upside for us from both of these issues. It is nice to have something on the ballot that draws a sharp line between the two parties. The transportation plan gives us a chance to showcase the GOP style of government vs. the Democrats’ and I-200 brings people out to the polls who are Republican-leaning but might not come out in the midterm election.”

Republicans originally also had planned to put their ban on gay marriages on the ballot, but Democrats surprised them by providing enough votes to override a veto by Gov. Gary Locke. Other measures that didn’t quite make it to the ballot dealt with abortion and English as the official language.

But Democrats aren’t quaking. They say the initiatives that will be on the ballot could become a drag for GOP candidates because of what they say about the GOP.

And Democrats believe their own efforts, including a “mend it, don’t end it” approach on affirmative action and a call for a whole new transportation plan in 1999, will pay big dividends.

In fact, Democratic state Chairman Paul Berendt says the Republicans are playing right into Democrats’ hands.

“We are seeing wedge politics at its worst,” he says. “They believe this hard edge on social issues works for them. The affirmative action vote was designed with one thing in mind - to create divisions in the electorate to bring out the hard-right voters.”

But that backfires with mainstream voters, who don’t have much of a problem with programs to help women and minorities, Berendt figures.

The Republicans “have given us a message. They have gone too far. They have gone over the edge with this harsh agenda. They pandered to the right while Democrats were pressing a moderate agenda for education and transportation and family-wage jobs in rural and suburban areas,” Berendt says.

Cathy Allen, a Democratic campaign expert, says she agrees the two measures could hurt Republicans, especially with women. A backlash, coupled with a popular minimum-wage initiative and top-flight candidates, should help Democrats from U.S. Sen. Patty Murray on down the ticket, she says.