December 13th, 2025

Brian Heywood has informally adopted Jim Walsh’s voter cancellation initiative onto his slate for 2026

Threat Analysis

Mega-millionaire Brian Heywood confirmed in a Twitter post today that petitions for Washington State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh’s mass voter cancellation initiative are being circulated at “super signing events” that are being organized by Heywood’s Let’s Go Washington political committee, effectively making Walsh’s IL26-126 part of Heywood’s slate of 2026 measures.

Heywood posted a photo of people signing petitions and said: “Lots of support in Tumwater for protecting girls sports, keeping parents informed, and needing an ID to register to vote….”

Brian Heywood photo
A photo posted by Brian Heywood on Twitter of his December 13th event in Tumwater

This is a reference to three measures:

  • Heywood’s IL26-001, which repeals the Safety Act signed into law this year protecting youth and expanding parental rights
  • Heywood’s IL26-638, which requires young girls across Washington to submit to invasive genital exams just to participate in student athletics
  • Walsh’s IL26-126, which would cancel the voter registrations of any Washington voter who doesn’t have an enhanced driver’s license and doesn’t go in person to “prove” their citizenship

The Let’s Go Washington website has long promoted the first two measures. The third, an obsession of Walsh’s, has not been circulated under the Let’s Go Washington banner.

But that appears to be changing. Heywood has embraced IL26-126.

Yesterday evening, Walsh said in a Twitter update of his own that the state party and Let’s Go Washington would be setting up a “pony express” to acquire petitions they’ve distributed for submission to the Secretary of State’s office:

@WAGOP in conjunction with @letsgowa are embarking on a pony express-like system to collect signatures from various drop-off locations across the state. “All three initiatives are on track to qualify by the Jan 2, 2026, deadline,” adds Chairman.

The tweet is accompanied by an odd-looking video recorded in Walsh’s office with Walsh in the corner of the frame instead of centered:

In December 2023, Walsh and Heywood submitted millions of signatures for six destructive right wing initiatives. All six qualified. Three were taken off the ballot by the Legislature and passed into law; one of those, I-2081, was subsequently superseded by the Safety Act this year. The other three went to the ballot and were resoundingly defeated by Washingtonians. A seventh measure that qualified as an initiative to the people in 2024 passed narrowly and is being challenged in court.

December 12th, 2025

WFF critique of IL26-638 leaves Brian Heywood and his spokeswoman scrambling

Rethinking and Reframing

Right wing mega-millionaire Brian Heywood has a big problem on his hands.

He and his operatives are so obsessed with controlling other people’s bodies and infringing on other people’s freedoms that they apparently never considered the ramifications of the enforcement mechanism they cooked up to bar trans girls from participating in girls’ sports.

Ever since Washington Families For Freedom pointed out that their IL26-638 effectively requires young people who want to participate in girls’ sports to prove they have vulvar anatomy, Heywood and Company have been in damage control mode.

Heywood and his spokesman are now openly denying they’re interested in what’s inside young girls’ pants, even though their initiative most certainly is.

Before we discuss their reactions, let’s first take a look at the language of IL26-638.

Here’s Section 3 of the measure:

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 28A.600 RCW to read as follows:

(1) Policies, procedures, rules, and other requirements adopted in accordance with RCW 28A.600.200 by a school district board of directors or a voluntary nonprofit entity must prohibit biologically male students from competing with and against female students in athletic activities with separate classifications for male and female students if the athletic activity is:
(a) Intended for female students only; and
(b) An individual or team competition activity.

(2) A student who elects to participate in individual or team competition activities intended for female students only governed under subsection (1) of this section shall provide, as part of the required routine sports physical examination, a health examination and consent form or other statement signed by the student’s personal health care provider that verifies the student’s biological sex, relying only on one or more of the following: The student’s reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels.

The highlighted portion is the critical bit. The measure requires “a health examination… that verifies the student’s biological sex.” Since most young girls’ families probably won’t have genetic tests or bloodwork that would show testosterone levels, the “verification” will be “a health examination” that attests to “the student’s reproductive anatomy.”

In other words, adults looking to see if young girls have vulvas and vaginas.

That’s what that means.

The initiative tries to make this new requirement sound normal — the word “routine” is even used in Section 3 — but what’s being mandated here is quite invasive.

Boys are exempt, by the way. Only Washington girls would be subjected to this new “verification” regime — because this is all about power and control.

Elizabeth Wareing, a mom of two girls and police detective for nearly thirty years, spoke at a press conference organized by our Washington Families For Freedom coalition last month and said:

“I spent nine years investigating hate crime and bias incidents, and many other years investigating crimes against children, sexual assault and domestic violence. Initiative IL26-638 would force girls to prove their sex before participating in sports, including being forced to expose their genitals to an adult, if they don’t have other documentation. This requirement would disproportionately affect children who don’t have documentation or regular access to a physician.”

“In addition to violating a child’s dignity, I believe there is a high potential for sexual abuse under circumstances such as these. According to the CDC, nearly one in four girls experience sexual violence before the age of eighteen in this country. Sexual predators often set themselves up as authority figures to give themselves more power and access to their victims. I believe this initiative would increase the risk of sexual abuse for girls participating in sports.”

Let’s Go Washington’s response has been very revealing.

“What’s so disgusting about that is they can just shout out that they’re going to make little girls take their pants down before they can play a soccer game,” whined Hallie Balch, Brian Heywood’s spokeswoman, in a comment to The Center Square. “And people just run with that. It’s so egregious what they’re saying. They’re just putting this incendiary idea in the people’s minds, and it has absolutely nothing to do with what we’re talking about.”

Balch may not want to talk about what’s in Section 3 of IL26-638 and what the verification regime entails, but we believe it’s vital that Washingtonians know all about what they’ll be voting on.

This is Let’s Go Washington’s initiative. They drafted it and they own what’s in it.

“To be very honest we have zero interest in what is in your pants,” Heywood added in a tweet posted on December 11th. “We do you think you should not play on a high school girls volleyball team and should stay the heck out of their changing rooms.”

Brian, if you feel the need to publicly say things like: “To be very honest we have zero interest in what is in your pants,” then you have a problem. A huge problem. It’s a fact that IL26-638 says what’s excerpted above, and credible analysis of that provision suggests it will increase the risk of sexual abuse for girls participating in sports. That’s horrifying.

Fortunately, we can prevent Heywood’s invasive genital exams by rejecting IL26-638 next November. To help Permanent Defense defeat this awful measure, you can make a donation here.

September 5th, 2025

Brian Heywood’s initiative factory is active again: Mega-millionaire will circulate petitions for two measures to sabotage youth and LGBTQ+ rights

Statements & AdvisoriesThreat Analysis

Washington voters sent right wing mega-millionaire Brian Heywood a powerful message last November when they rejected most of his slate of destructive initiatives that sought to roll back major laws the Legislature had passed by historic margins. But Heywood, who been a witness to the Washington State Republican Party’s mounting electoral losses, has said several times since then that he’s not ready to give up on trying to get deceptive and divisive initiatives past the voters.

After mostly laying low this summer, Heywood has now disclosed plans to try to qualify two measures to the 2026 Washington State Legislature. One attempts to overturn the landmark student rights and parental involvement law that the Legislature passed back in the spring, which superseded one of the three Heywood-backed initiatives that did not go to the ballot in 2024. The other cruelly targets transgender youth, seeking to bar transgender girls from participating in girls’ sports.

Each measure faces a signature collection deadline of January 2, 2026. Heywood will need to amass 386,000 signatures for each to secure a random sample check.

Given Heywood’s wealth, we expect each measure to qualify.

Neither measure will appear on this year’s odd-year ballot; Heywood has chosen the initiative to the Legislature route. That means each of the two measures will be sent to the House and Senate first.

It would be a huge mistake for legislators to adopt either to keep them off the ballot — we need to defeat them to demonstrate to Heywood that voters don’t like his awful ideas and won’t vote for them, regardless of subject. We’ve proven that voters won’t go for Heywood’s plots to defund our common wealth; now, we must unite Washingtonians in defense of our cherished values of diversity, equity, and inclusion and show Heywood that his culture war schemes aren’t wanted either.

If you see signature gatherers hawking petitions for IL26-001 and IL26-638, decline to sign.

The petitions look like this:

Heywood's 2025 initiatives
A graphic created by Let’s Go Washington that depicts the two measures Heywood wants to qualify for 2026

The statements of subject, concise descriptions, and summaries for these measures are as follows:

IL26-001

Ballot Title
Initiative Measure No. IL26-001 concerns parental rights relating to their children in public school.

This measure would repeal amendments to a statute listing certain rights of parents and guardians of public-school children and re-enact the law as it was originally enacted by Initiative to the Legislature 2081.

Should this measure be enacted into law? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Ballot Measure Summary
This measure would re-enact RCW 28A.605.005 as it was originally enacted in Initiative to the Legislature 2081. The re-enacted law would list certain rights of parents and guardians of public-school children, including rights to review materials and student records, receive certain notifications and opt students out of certain activities. It would repeal amendments to the statute, which modified school obligations and access to certain student records and added certain parental rights.

IL26-638

Ballot Title
Initiative Measure No. IL26-638 concerns participation in athletics at K-12 schools.

This measure would prohibit students it defines as “biologically male” from competing in certain school athletic activities intended for female students only. It would require verification of biological sex by students’ healthcare providers.

Should this measure be enacted into law? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Ballot Measure Summary
This measure would require policies prohibiting students it defines as “biologically male” from competing with or against female students in certain interschool athletic activities that are intended for female students only. Students who choose to participate in such activities must provide a statement from the student’s healthcare provider verifying the student’s biological sex, based on reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels. These requirements would apply to individual or team athletic competitions.

NPI’s Permanent Defense is working with Washington Families For Freedom — a coalition of parents, teachers, students and community members working to stand up for every student’s right to fair, safe, and equal schools — to defeat these two measures.

To learn more about WFF, please visit the coalition’s website.

March 21st, 2025

NPI thanks Judge Sandra Widlan for striking down the BIAW and Brian Heywood’s unconstitutional I-2066

In the Courts

Today, Judge Sandra Widlan issued a comprehensive, thorough ruling striking down the Building Industry Association of Washington and Brian Heywood’s deceitful measure seeking to keep Washington wedded to methane gas, a dirty and dangerous fossil fuel that the state has begun transitioning away from in favor of clean energy alternatives.

Judge Widlan found that the BIAW and Heywood’s Initiative 2066 violates Article II, Section 19 and Article II, Section 37 of the Washington State Constitution, granting a nonprofit-led coalition of plaintiffs represented by Pacifica Law Group summary judgment against the measure.

While Widlan’s decision is certain to be appealed to the Washington State Supreme Court, it is nevertheless a huge initial victory in the case, and increases the likelihood that I-2066 will be relegated to the dustbin of history, perhaps by year’s end.

NPI founder and executive director Andrew Villeneuve, who was present in the courtroom for oral argument and the ruling on the organization’s behalf, thanked Judge Widlan for delivering a verdict that upholds the Constitution and respects Supreme Court precedent.

“The Washington State Constitution is the supreme law of the land,” said Villeneuve. “It’s the plan of government for our republic. It protects majority rule with minority rights. It defines our core freedoms and bars their infringement. And, importantly, it prohibits deceitful and manipulate legislating practices like logrolling. All laws — whether they originate in the Legislature or from the people by citizen petition — must follow the Constitution.”

“The Building Industry Association of Washington failed to do that when they wrote Initiative 2066. They concocted a scheme to sabotage the work we’ve undertaken as a state to move away from dirty, dangerous fossil fuels like methane gas, and peddled it to voters using fabrications, including the false claim that it was needed to stop a gas ban, when in reality, there is no gas ban.”

“Now, they are realizing the consequences of writing a deceptive, malicious initiative and attempting to mask its harms. Our system of checks and balances worked today: it’s the responsibility of our judiciary to uphold the Constitution and say what the law is.”

“Judge Widlan fulfilled her oath. She read the briefs, studied the case law, heard all parties, and came back with a thorough verdict firmly rooted in precedent. Her well-reasoned decision ought to hold up on appeal when the Supreme Court gets the case.”

“This decision is a big victory for Washington’s communities. It’s worth celebrating, especially at a time when our U.S. Constitution is being trampled on by two of our federal government’s three branches, and sometimes disregarded by the third.”

November 5th, 2024

NPI thanks Washingtonians for rejecting three of four Brian Heywood initiatives

Election Postmortem

Initial election results in the November 2024 general election show that Washingtonians have rejected three measures sponsored by Republican State Party Chair Jim Walsh and funded by right wing multimillionaire Brian Heywood that would have repealed or sabotaged landmark laws to strengthen education funding, fight pollution, and improve access to long-term care.

A fourth measure spearheaded by Heywood and Walsh’s political machine to disrupt Washington’s transition to a clean energy future was too close to call.

The four Heywood and Walsh measures attempted to:

  • Disrupt Washington’s transition to a clean energy future by making it more difficult for Puget Sound Energy to keep gas prices stable for customers who aren’t yet ready to electrify and prevent local communities from incentivizing a transition away from petroleum gas (Initiative 2066);
  • Repeal the capital gains tax on the wealthy that helped make Washington’s tax code more equitable and provided long overdue revenue for education, early learning, childcare, and school construction (Initiative 2109);
  • Dismantle Washington State’s landmark Climate Commitment Act, which we need to accelerate our transition to a clean energy future (Initiative 2117);
  • Sabotage the Washington Cares Fund, which the Legislature created to ensure Washingtonians would be able to access funding for long term care when they need it (Initiative 2124).

“Our thanks to the people of Washington for voting down Initiatives 2109, 2117, and 2124,” said NPI founder Andrew Villeneuve. “For over a year, our team at NPI has been working with the Defend Washington coalition to secure the Evergreen State’s future and stop greed. The early results are a testament to the success of our movement’s organizing and mobilizing work. We have saved the Education Legacy Trust, the Climate Commitment Act, and the WA Cares Fund… and that feels really, really great.”

“In this election, the public investment impact disclosure (PIID) law we worked so hard on saw its first application,with PIIDs written for I-2109, I-2117, and I-2124. Our team heard from many voters that the PIIDs made it easier to vote on the initiatives and understand their ramifications. According to our research, more than eight in ten Washingtonians support this vital transparency law, including majorities of Republican voters. We’re delighted that it worked as intended and look forward to proposing and championing more reforms that will strengthen the initiative process.”

“Initiative 2066 remains too close to call. We’ll see what happens with the late ballots. The result may be close. If the measure is not defeated, our movement will confer on options for preventing its harmful provisions from going into effect, or mitigating them.”

Please visit StopGreed.org for more information, including a FAQ about the initiatives.

July 2nd, 2024

Ahead of signature turn-in events, NPI calls for the rejection of Initiative 2066 

From the Campaign TrailRethinking and ReframingStatements & Advisories

This afternoon, multimillionaire Brian Heywood and Washington State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh have several events planned to promote Initiative 2066, a measure they say they’ve collected over 425,000 signatures for, which is aimed at delaying and disrupting Washington’s clean energy future and could also ironically raise costs for those Washington households using petroleum gas for heating and cooking.

The Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI), a 501(c)(4) strategy center working from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho to raise Pacific Northwesterners’ quality of life through insightful research and imaginative advocacy, says that Initiative 2066 deserves to be rejected by Washington voters should it qualify for the ballot. Having studied the measure’s text and conferred with specialists in energy policy, NPI assesses that the 2066 has both the potential to cause problems for Washington’s transition to a clean energy economy and raise costs for Washington households.

According to the official ballot measure summary prepared by the Attorney General’s office, I-2066 would: “require utilities and local governments to provide natural gas to eligible customers; prevent state approval of rate plans requiring or incentivizing gas service termination, restricting access to gas service, or making it cost-prohibitive; and prohibit the state energy code, localities, and air pollution control agencies from penalizing gas use. It would repeal sections of chapter 351, Laws of 2024, including planning requirements for cost-effective electrification and prohibitions on gas rebates and incentives.”

The case for Initiative 2066, as articulated to date by Heywood, Walsh, and Let’s Go Washington, has been built on a pile of lies and misinformation.

Heywood and Walsh and Republican surrogates speak of needing to overturn “the gas ban” passed by the Legislature in the 2024 session and preventing households from being forced to electrify.

Those are untruthful references to House Bill 1589, “an act relating to supporting Washington’s clean energy economy and transitioning to a clean, affordable, and reliable energy future” (see full text).

Puget Sound Energy, Washington’s largest private utility, has described HB 1589 as a planning bill on a web page that seeks to correct the record about the legislation, and that is a correct characterization.

Importantly, PSE states:

  • “HB 1589 does not include a ban on natural gas, and it does not change PSE’s obligation to serve natural gas to our customers.”
  • “There is no rate increase associated with HB 1589. It’s a planning bill, and there will be three years of rulemaking and work before we submit an integrated system plan to our regulators. That will only be a plan — it will not include a request to increase rates.”
  • “Nothing in the bill forces electrification. What it does is requires PSE to develop a scenario demonstrating the costs of electrification that will be part of the integrated system plan we submit to our regulators in 2027.”

The nonpartisan staff analysis of HB 1589 is here.

A plain reading of the summary section shows that 1589 is indeed a planning bill.

Primarily, it updates the statutes that pertain to PSE’s reporting obligations to regulators.

1589 also requires PSE to end fossil gas incentives to residential customers starting next year:

Beginning January 1, 2025, no large combination utility [meaning, PSE] may offer any form of rebate, incentive, or other inducement to residential gas customers to purchase any natural gas appliance or equipment. Until January 1, 2031, this requirement does not apply to:

  • electric heat pumps that include natural gas backups; or
  • commercial and industrial customers

But again, HB 1589 doesn’t ban petroleum gas, contrary to what proponents have been saying in public and on petitions for Initiative 2066.

NPI’s board of directors voted last month to take a position opposing I-2066.

We oppose I-2066 because:

  • It has the potential to increase Washingtonians’ costs
  • It seeks to delay and disrupt our transition to a clean energy economy
  • It disregards the latest scientific research showing that gas use harms human health
  • It would make many new homes less safe
  • It may not be constitutional

Let’s consider each of these points:

2066 has the potential to increase Washingtonians’ costs

Washingtonians are already grappling with higher prices for a long list of basics and necessities. Initiative 2066 has the potential to exacerbate that pain, because it increases the likelihood that families which remain gas customers will be stuck with escalating costs across a dwindling base. That’s irresponsible and wrong. According to Puget Sound Energy, “gas energy use is declining — down 7% for residential and 3% for commercial customers in 2023 and forecasted to continue to decline over the next five years” while “electricity use is increasing and forecasted to continue to rise.”

This is the reality in the areas PSE serves, whether proponents want to admit it or not.

House Bill 1589 seeks to empower Puget Sound Energy to plan for a smooth transition away from gas; I-2066 seeks to blow up that process. It is critical for voters to know that 2066 offers zero protection from higher prices going forward. Despite attempting to eliminate an incentivized pathway to more stable prices, proponents failed to put any provisions in their measure addressing affordability for households already on gas. Rather, 2066 is focused on facilitating new gas connections at a time when we are trying to reduce air and water pollution so we can lead happier, healthier lives and pay less for energy.

2066 seeks to delay and disrupt our transition to a clean energy economy

Petroleum gas is one of several major fossil fuels, the others being coal and oil, which are known to emit harmful pollutants when burned.

Gas was once believed to be the cleanest of the three, but the latest scientific research indicates that gas consumption is just as bad for the Earth as other fossil fuels.

In July of 2023, The New York Times reported on some of the newest research, explaining: “Natural gas, long seen as a cleaner alternative to coal and an important tool in the fight to slow global warming, can be just as harmful to the climate, a new study has concluded, unless companies can all but eliminate the leaks that plague its use. It takes as little as 0.2 percent of gas to leak to make natural gas as big a driver of climate change as coal, the study found. That’s a tiny margin of error for a gas that is notorious for leaking from drill sites, processing plants and the pipes that transport it into power stations or homes and kitchens.”

And gas leaks are extremely common: a little over ten years ago, scientists used a high precision methane detection device to map more than 5,893 natural gas leaks throughout the District of Columbia, our nation’s capital. A similar study in Boston the year before that detected more than 3,300 natural gas leaks. 2066 aims to keep us wedded to this dangerous, leaky, polluting source of energy, rather than supporting a thoughtful transition to a clean energy economy.

2066 disregards the latest scientific research showing that gas use harms human health

Burning gas isn’t just bad for the planet, it’s also harmful to human health.

In a 2022 article for Harvard Health Publishing, Dr. Wynne Armand detailed some of the latest scientific research, writing: “Cooking with gas stoves creates nitrogen dioxide and releases additional tiny airborne particles known as PM2.5, both of which are lung irritants. Nitrogen dioxide has been linked with childhood asthma. During 2019 alone, almost two million cases worldwide of new childhood asthma were estimated to be due to nitrogen dioxide pollution. Children living in households that use gas stoves for cooking are 42% more likely to have asthma, according to an analysis of observational research. While observational studies can’t prove that cooking with gas is the direct cause of asthma, data also show that the higher the nitrogen dioxide level, the more severe the asthma symptoms in children and adults.”

But it gets worse… here’s Armand again: “What’s more, a study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and PSE Healthy Energy showed that gas appliances also introduce other toxic chemicals into homes. The researchers collected unburned gas from stoves and building pipelines in the greater Boston area. In their analysis, they identified 21 different hazardous air pollutants known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). For example, benzene, hexane, and toluene were present in almost all of the gas samples tested. Exposure to some VOCs raises risks for asthma, cancer, and other illnesses.”

Responsible energy policy should be based on science. Sadly, Initiative 2066 ignores the best available science. Read the initiative’s intent section… there’s no acknowledgment of any of the health risks of gas use at all!

2066 would make many new homes less safe

Petroleum gas is flammable; we burn it for heat. That makes petroleum energy infrastructure inherently dangerous.

There have been many explosions and fires caused by gas leaks over the years which have led to serious injuries and deaths.

For example, in 2016, an explosion attributed to gas caused a massive explosion in Seattle’s Greenwood neighborhood.

A KOMO 4 article about the disaster begins: “A natural gas explosion rocked a Seattle neighborhood early Wednesday, sending nine firefighters to the hospital and reducing businesses to rubble… Crews were responding to reports of a natural gas leak when the explosion happened along the main thoroughfare of the city’s Greenwood neighborhood, just north of downtown, Seattle Fire Department spokeswoman Corey Orvold said. The blast occurred in the area of the Greenwood Quick Stop Market at N. 85th Street and Greenwood Avenue North. The business was destroyed by the force of the explosion. Two other businesses, Neptune Coffee and Mr. Gyros, were leveled as well. Seattle Fire officials say damage is estimated at $3 million.”

Initiative 2066 contains several provisions aimed at ensuring that future homes get hooked up to gas, to unwisely perpetuate our reliance on fossil fuels. Proponents talk about energy “choice”, “security”, and “independence” in their materials; they don’t talk about safety, or acknowledge that piping a flammable substance into homes and businesses is a recipe for more fires and explosions, as we saw in Greenwood eight years ago. It is not possible to make petroleum gas use safe. At best, the risks of its use can only be reduced.

It doesn’t make sense to enact policies that make new homes reliant on an older energy source that is known to be inherently dangerous when safer alternatives are available.

2066 may not be constitutional

The Washington State Constitution specifies that legislation must be confined to a single subject to deter logrolling (the practice of bundling unrelated proposals together in a single piece of legislation).

This requirement is found in Article II, Section 19, and it applies to all legislation, whether adopted by the people or by the people’s elected representatives.

The Washington State Supreme Court has tossed out a number of initiatives from the last twenty-five years as unconstitutional because they did not adhere to Article II, Section 19. Having read I-2066 several times, the NPI team questions whether it can withstand constitutional scrutiny. The measure amends numerous statutes to insert pro-gas provisions into different places in the Revised Code of Washington.

One provision is aimed at municipalities, some target utilities, one is directed at the state building code council, and a few more are aimed at the Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC).

Because all of these provisions have been bundled together into a single initiative, voters must consider them collectively. They can’t, for example, vote for just a partial repeal of House Bill 1589, because proponents concocted an initiative that seeks to sprinkle pro-gas language into other places in state law. For example, a Washington voter might be in favor of getting rid of some of the language in HB 1589, but not requiring cities and towns to “provide natural gas to those inhabitants that demand, apply for, and are reasonably entitled to receive, natural gas under this section, even if other energy services or energy sources may be available” (Sec 3, sub 2 of I-2066).

NPI will campaign for I-2066’s defeat

The NPI team has over two decades of experience organizing opposition through its Permanent Defense project to harmful initiatives that threaten Washington’s future.

We will use that experience to support the creation of a vigorous, effective opposition campaign to Initiative 2066.

“Washingtonians deserve lower costs and clean energy, but Initiative 2066 would take us backwards on both fronts. It has the potential to make gas less affordable for those Evergreen State families currently using it, while hindering our transition to a clean energy economy,” said Northwest Progressive Institute founder and executive director Andrew Villeneuve.

“We all win when public policy is based on science, and prioritizes safety and human health. But Initiative 2066 disregards the best available science. It would make our homes and businesses less safe and expose us to more pollution… and again, all while potentially making gas less affordable for those households already using it. We can’t afford the costs that I-2066’s proponents want our state’s families to pay indefinitely due to their infatuation with this dirty, leaky, unsafe form of energy.”

“It’s imperative that we reject I-2066 this November. We at NPI will do our part to bring together a broad and inclusive coalition of people and organizations that care about Washington’s future to make the case against this destructive initiative.”

June 7th, 2024

Statement applauding Judge Zipp’s ruling in Walsh v. Hobbs

In the Courts

Moments ago, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Allyson Zipp issued a ruling in Walsh v. Hobbs, Washington State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh’s lawsuit to evade a fiscal transparency law that the Washington State Legislature passed in 2022 to give voters notice that a proposed initiative has a fiscal impact.

Judge Zipp offered a lengthy, thoughtful verbal ruling from the bench, methodically demolishing the plaintiffs’ arguments. She denied plaintiffs’ motion for writs of prohibition and mandate requested by Walsh and his co-plaintiff Deanna Martinez to stop voters from receiving the information they’re legally entitled to have.

All three measures sponsored by Jim Walsh and funded by multimillionaire Republican Party donor Brian Heywood — Initiatives 2109, 2117, and 2124 — will receive public investment impact disclosures, the judge determined. The plaintiffs’ case was dismissed.

“Judge Zipp got it right in today’s ruling: The fiscal transparency law providing for public investment impact disclosures is all about informing and empowering voters, and responsibly interpreting that law led to the clear conclusion that it applies to Initiatives 2109, 2117, and 2124. Washington State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh’s shameful attempt to conceal critical information about the cost and consequences about his slate of measures from the people of Washington has failed,” said Northwest Progressive Institute founder and executive director Andrew Villeneuve, who worked with NPI’s Kathy Sakahara and State Representative Mia Gregerson (D-33rd District) to secure passage of the fiscal transparency law in the 2022 legislative session.

“For decades, voters have been asked to decide the fate of right wing anti-tax measures with no notice provided on the ballot itself of those measures’ fiscal impacts. But those days are over. Now, public investment impact disclosures are required for measures that would increase or decrease state taxes and fees. The presence of these disclosures on the ballot itself puts voters on notice that there are costs and consequences to the measure that they may wish to study prior to making a decision. This is something voters really, really, really want: According to our polling, 82% of the Washington electorate supports this fiscal transparency law. Huge majorities of Democrats, independents, and Republicans are all supportive of it.”

“Jim Walsh sought to evade this law, one of the most important initiative reforms in decades, for purely political reasons. Walsh evidently fears that if voters know the truth, his destructive initiatives will have less of a chance of passing. So he went to court to try to get a judge to order that the information voters are legally entitled to have about these measures’ fiscal impacts be hidden from them. And thankfully, Judge Zipp said no.”

“We hope this is the end of this case. Walsh and his co-plaintiff Deanna Martinez should just accept that there are going to be public investment impact disclosures on the ballot for each of these three measures. Let’s move this debate back into the court of public opinion and have a robust, vigorous, and spirited discussion about these measures. Our team is looking forward to participating in the strong and effective NO campaigns that are being assembled to give I-2109, I-2117, and I-2124 the vigorous opposition they deserve.”

Further reading: Unsurprisingly, Jim Walsh wants to evade an NPI-championed law that requires fiscal transparency in initiative descriptions

June 5th, 2024

Republicans’ lawsuit to conceal fiscal impacts from voters should be tossed

In the Courts

About one month ago, Washington State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh and Mainstream Republicans of Washington Chair Deanna Martinez filed a lawsuit in Thurston County Superior Court asking a judge to order Washington’s statewide elected officials to conceal information that voters are legally entitled to have about the fiscal impacts of three measures the duo hopes will catalyze Republican success in the coming presidential election.

Those measures — I-2109, I-2117, I-2124 — each target laws passed by the Washington State Legislature within the last few years, namely, the capital gains tax on the wealthy that funds the Education Legacy Trust, the Climate Commitment Act, and WA Cares.

Thurston County Superior Court Judge Allyson Zipp is slated to hear oral argument this Friday in the case.

Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s office has asked Zipp to dismiss the suit, calling it “a meritless attempt to deny voters information.”

It certainly is that – but it’s important to understand that it is also a desperate, last-ditch effort to rig the electoral arena in Republicans’ favor.

Walsh and Martinez have seen the public opinion research from the Defend Washington coalition indicating that each of their measures is currently on a trajectory to fail, especially once voters become aware of the initiatives’ fiscal impacts.

They know they aren’t going to have help from oil companies to pass I-2117, the initiative that seeks to repeal the Climate Commitment Act. And they know that their principal funder Brian Heywood doesn’t have a bottomless pocketbook, despite being very rich. He’s said he doesn’t intend to put millions more into the effort to pass the slate.

So, they’re quite worried about their prospects.

This lawsuit proves it. Underneath their bluster, you can see their concern.

They want to replicate Tim Eyman’s old formula for getting initiatives past the voters, but they have a problem: deceptive ballot language concealing the cost and consequences was an essential ingredient in Eyman’s formula, and there’s now a state law in place requiring that voters be informed about measures that have a fiscal impact on the ballot itself.

That 2022 law, sponsored by State Representative Mia Gregerson and championed by the Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI), is now set to be invoked for the first time.

Since the truth is such a serious barrier to their chances of winning this November, Walsh and Martinez and their counsel Joel Ard have come up with an argument for why the law shouldn’t apply to any of their three initiatives. They want Judge Zipp to grant writs of prohibition and mandate to hide essential information about what the measures would do from the people of Washington.

Contrary to what they’ve said in their public statements, this information is required to be factual and simply worded.

Here’s the law:

Public investment impact disclosures.

(1) The attorney general must prepare a public investment impact disclosure for any ballot measure that:
(a) Repeals, levies, or modifies any tax or fee, including changing the scope or application of an existing tax or fee; and
(b) Has a fiscal impact statement, as provided by RCW 29A.72.025, that shows that adoption of the measure would cause a net change in state revenue.
(2) The public investment impact disclosure must include a description of the investments that will be affected if the measure is adopted. The description must be sufficiently broad to reflect the subject of the investments that will be impacted by the change in revenue that will result from adoption of the measure, but also sufficiently precise to give notice of the subject matter of the investments that will be impacted by the change in revenue that will result from adoption of the measure. The description may not exceed 10 words, unless the fiscal impact is primarily to the state general fund, in which case the description must list the top three categories of state services funded by the general fund in the current state budget and may not exceed 15 words. The attorney general may consult with the office of financial management or any other state or local agencies as necessary to procure accurate information to draft the description.
(3) The format of the public investment impact disclosure, as it appears on the ballot, is:
“This measure would (increase or decrease) funding for (description of services).”
(4) In drafting the public investment impact disclosure, the attorney general must use neutral language that cannot reasonably be expected to create prejudice for or against the measure. The language of the disclosure is not subject to appeal, except as provided in chapter 114, Laws of 2022.
(5) The attorney general must file the public investment impact disclosure with the secretary of state no later than July 23rd.
(6) The secretary of state must certify the public investment impact disclosure and timely transmit it to each county auditor for its inclusion on the ballot.
(7) Public investment impact disclosures are not considered part of the ballot title under this chapter and are not subject to any of the legal requirements for ballot titles.

It is important to note that the disclosure is required of measures that increase as well as decrease funding for public services, and that the attorney general is required to “use neutral language that cannot reasonably be expected to create prejudice for or against the measure.”

This of course doesn’t matter to Walsh and Martinez.

The mere mention of fiscal impacts on the ballot is unacceptable to them, because the truth hurts. They want to win, and they see this disclosure law as a serious impediment.

So they’ve filed this lawsuit and have made some very ridiculous public statements about it in a desperate attempt to flip the script. They’re hoping the press won’t notice or point out that they’re now making arguments in court that are totally contradictory to the arguments they’ve made in the court of public opinion for more than a year.

They have been campaigning, for example, to “stop the hidden gas tax” with I-2117… but now they’re arguing in court pleadings that I-2117 wouldn’t repeal any taxes, or fees.

(And never mind that I-2117’s statement of subject and concise description, which were on all of their petitions, refer to “carbon tax credit trading.”)

At NPI, we believe that Washingtonians have a right to know what they’re voting on and what the effects of their vote would be, whether they choose Yes or No.

We are proud to have worked on HB 1876 with Representative Mia Gregerson. Our 2022 polling found that 82% of Washington voters support this law. Even Republican voters love the idea of fiscal transparency in initiative descriptions. It’s got universal support from across the ideological spectrum because it empowers voters.

All of us should be able to understand what we’re voting on. Concealing critical information about what a proposed law would do from voters is wrong. Appalling. Disgraceful.

Yet that is what Walsh and Martinez are asking our judiciary to do.

Judge Zipp should toss this lawsuit into the dustbin where it belongs. To do otherwise would not be in the interests of justice or an informed electorate.

November 21st, 2023

NPI relaunches StopGreed.org following Let’s Go Washington signature turn in event

From the Campaign TrailRethinking and ReframingStatements & AdvisoriesThreat Analysis

Today, a network of right wing groups primarily funded by Republican millionaire Brian Heywood submitted what they said were over 418,000 signatures supporting I-2117, an initiative that seeks to repeal Washington State’s landmark Climate Commitment Act, and pledged to return soon to submit signatures for another five measures that they hope to qualify as initiatives to the Legislature in 2024.

In response, the Northwest Progressive Institute, a 501(c)(4) nonprofit strategy center that has been working for over two decades to expand freedom and prosperity for Washingtonians, Oregonians, and Idahoans, relaunched its StopGreed.org website to help Washingtonians understand the danger posed by these six measures.

StopGreed.org was originally built in 2010 to urge Washington voters to defeat a slew of destructive initiatives that were on that year’s ballot. It has been maintained since then as an archive. But as of today, StopGreed.org has a second act. The site will serve as an informational opposition hub to I-2117 and the five other measures that Heywood’s groups want to qualify by December 29th. The list of measures is as follows:

  • Initiative 2117 — repeals the Climate Commitment Act, which is raising funds to fight climate damage
  • Initiative 2109 — repeals billions in education funding by eliminating the capital gains tax on the wealthy
  • Initiative 2113 — rolls back restrictions on police pursuits that are making our communities safer
  • Initiative 2124 — sabotages the WA Cares plan to help Washingtonians afford long-term care
  • Initiative 2111 — bars the state and local governments from levying taxes based on ability to pay
  • Initiative 2081 — forces public schools to give parents information that students may not want shared

All of the initiatives are sponsored by State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh, who is himself a state legislator.

An analysis of Let’s Go Washington’s contributions prepared by NPI shows that Heywood (a businessman who is the at ) has provided over 87% of the funding for the six initiatives. Most of that money has been used to hire crews to gather signatures.

The petition drive was entrusted to a firm named Your Choice Petitions, LLC, out of Spokane, which belongs to a convicted forger named Brent Johnson. See NPI’s reporting for more information about Johnson and his relationship with Tim Eyman associate Roy Ruffino.

“Brian Heywood and Jim Walsh’s initiatives are a grave threat to Washington’s future,” said Northwest Progressive Institute founder and executive director Andrew Villeneuve, who attended the group’s signature turn-in in Tumwater along with NPI boardmember Yanah Cook and fellow Climate Reality activists.

Villeneuve was trained by former Vice President Al Gore and his team in Bellevue several years ago to give Gore’s famous presentation on the climate crisis, which is the centerpiece of the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth. He has been organizing opposition to statewide initiatives like I-2117 since 2002, when he founded NPI’s Permanent Defense project to take on former initiative promoter Tim Eyman.

“America and the world are in dire need of climate action leadership at this critical moment for humanity. Washington State has been a beacon of hope in dark and disturbing times, but now our local right wing wants to roll back the clock and eliminate the billions in revenue the Climate Commitment Act is raising to provide a path to a clean energy future,” said Villeneuve. “That’s unacceptable. I heard Brian Heywood and Jim Walsh say today they’re not against holding polluters accountable for their emissions, but their actions belie their words. They have no climate action plan of their own, and they know it. Nevertheless, they seem to have realized that admitting that they don’t care about saving our planet from climate damage will make it harder for them to sell I-2117. That is telling.”

For each initiative they want to qualify, Heywood, Walsh, and Let’s Go Washington must submit around 405,000 signatures for each of them by the end of this year — December 29th at 5 PM Pacific Time, to be precise.

The Constitution requires that initiatives receive a number of signatures equivalent to 8% of the number of people who voted in the last election for governor to qualify. The minimum number of valid signatures required is currently 324,516, however, 405,000 is the number of signatures the Secretary of State recommends submitting to ensure qualification. That latter number includes a cushion to account for duplicate and invalid signatures.

Because these are all initiatives to the Legislature they will go first to the House and Senate for consideration there.

If the House and Senate don’t approve them, they would be forwarded to the November 2024 ballot for voters to decide. The House and Senate also have the option of submitting alternative measures that address the same topics to voters.

Walsh and Heywood say they have five more signature turn-in events planned for the month of December.

“Although Tim Eyman never managed to qualify this many initiatives to the ballot simultaneously during the years when his initiative factory was active, there was a time when his Oregon counterpart Bill Sizemore did, using millionaire Loren Parks’ money,” Villeneuve recalled. “And, happily, the opposition campaign to those measures was able to defeat them – yes, all of them – by uniting Oregonians behind the values of freedom, inclusion, justice, and broad prosperity. That’s the outcome we’ll be striving for in 2024 in Washington if Heywood and Walsh are successful in qualifying their slate of six initiatives.”

“Our team at NPI has decades of experience dealing with bad ballot measures, and we’ll put it all to work to ensure there is a vigorous and effective opposition campaign against these bad ideas. We in Washington State cannot afford to jeopardize the progress we’ve made towards goals like meeting our paramount duty of funding education, tackling our severe housing shortage, fighting climate damage, and making it easier to obtain healthcare.”

Please visit StopGreed.org for more information, including a FAQ about the six initiatives.

July 23rd, 2023

NPI’s Senate Bill 5082 takes effect, putting an end to Tim Eyman’s push polls

Statements & Advisories

Today marks the formal conclusion of NPI’s more than four year effort to put an end to Tim Eyman’s malicious and harmful push polls, which Eyman deceptively dubbed “advisory votes.” That’s because it’s the effective date of NPI’s legislation that replaces them with truthful, useful fiscal information that’s continuously available to voters on the web and referenced in the printed voter’s pamphlet sent out to millions of Washingtonians each autumn.

Senate Bill 5082, prime sponsored by Senator Patty Kuderer, with a companion offered by Representative Amy Walen in the House, became the law of the land when our clocks changed over from July 22nd to July 23rd, 2023. Its title describes it as “an act relating to encouraging electoral participation and making ballots more meaningful by abolishing advisory votes.”

Its statement of legislative intent eloquently reads as follows:

The legislature finds that making the act of casting a ballot as simple as possible will help promote the free and equal elections guaranteed by Article I, section 19 and Article VI, section 1 of the Washington state Constitution. The legislature recognizes that transparency and fiscal responsibility are important to the people of Washington, and that election administration and ballot design should reflect these long-held values. The legislature further finds that the people rightfully expect items on their ballots to be neutrally and accurately worded. Finally, the legislature finds for the votes that Washingtonians cast to have meaning, the ballot must be limited to candidate elections that give the people the power to choose their representatives or ballot measures that determine what laws and plan of government the state and its localities shall have.

“Washingtonians are done putting up with anti-tax propaganda masquerading as referenda on their statewide ballots,” said Northwest Progressive Institute founder and executive director Andrew Villeneuve. “Thanks to our sorely needed legislation, Tim Eyman’s push polls are a thing of the past. There will be nothing written by Tim Eyman on this year’s statewide ballot, which is a great blessing and huge win for the people of Washington.”

The Code Reviser’s office has already tagged the online copy of the RCWs that Eyman created to facilitate his push poll scheme for removal, with a link to the text of Senate Bill 5082. The next step will be to actually delete the now repealed language so that it’s wiped off our state’s books.

Eyman’s unconstitutional two-thirds scheme to raise taxes is also officially off of our books as of today – it was deleted as part of another bill championed by NPI and adopted by the Legislature concerning defects and omissions. The text of that bill, SSB 5087, can be found here.

“Addressing and repairing the damage caused by Eyman’s past initiatives is an ongoing project,” noted Villeneuve. “But we’re making substantive progress, and there’s more to come as we move into the middle years of the 2020s. We’re also putting in place reforms to the initiative process that will prevent the return of Eyman or any other bad actors like him in the future.”

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