Voters in Washington will soon get their ballots in the mail for the general election, with voting opening on Friday. About half of the statewide races in Washington are open contests this year. That includes the governor’s race where Democratic candidate and Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson is facing Dave Reichert, a former U.S. Representative and sheriff of King County. Reichert is emphasizing his law enforcement credentials on the campaign trail, while trying to shore up support among voters who identify as moderates. During the second gubernatorial debate last month, the two candidates clashed over crime and public safety, the state’s abortion protections and education policies.
Four statewide initiatives are also on the Washington ballot this year. They include I-2117 which if passed, would repeal Washington’s landmark Climate Commitment Act. The law, which went into effect last January, establishes a cap-and-invest program that requires refineries and other polluters to pay for their greenhouse gas emissions with a target of phasing them out by 95% by 2050. The CCA has raised $2 billion so far to fund statewide efforts to mitigate climate change, including making free bus rides for youth, issuing $200 utility credits for low and middle-income households, and expanding electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
Jeanie Lindsay is the Olympia correspondent for our partner station, KUOW. She joins us to talk about the Washington governor’s race, the initiatives on the ballot and the issues that are top of mind for the state’s voters.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Voters in Washington will soon get their ballots in the mail, and they’re going to be chock-full with races for governor and attorney general, other statewide offices, and four statewide initiatives – including one that would repeal Washington’s landmark Climate Commitment Act, which established a cap and invest program. Jeanie Lindsay is the Olympia correspondent for partner station, KUOW, and she joins us now. Welcome back.
Jeanie Lindsay: Hello.
Miller: Before we get to individual races, what issues seem to be top of mind for voters this year?
Lindsay: I talked with some voters at the ballot box on primary day back in August, and two of the issues that came up repeatedly were public safety, and reproductive rights and abortion. When you look at the polls, people are talking about economic issues: jobs, inflation, housing. Taxes are also something on a lot of people’s minds. And I know that that’s all pretty broad, but that’s sort of the realm of first things that people bring up.
Miller: How big a partisan split did you see in those concerns among voters?
Lindsay: Well, everybody seems to be pretty worried about the economy, prices, housing in particular. But I tend to hear more concerns about taxes generally from conservatives and Republican-leaning folks. And they’re also the ones who are talking to me more about crime and public safety issues, even though there are concerns across the political spectrum on that issue, no doubt.
And then when it comes to abortion and reproductive rights, Democrats and progressive voters bring that one up a lot, especially with Donald Trump on the top of the Republican ticket on the presidential race. And they also talk a little bit about protecting democracy.
Miller: Let’s turn to the governor’s race, an open seat after three terms for Democrat Jay Inslee. What can you tell us about the Democratic candidate, Bob Ferguson?
Lindsay: Ferguson is from Washington and has spent some time in local government before he became Attorney General in 2012. That was the same year that current Governor Jay Inslee was elected governor. So Ferguson has grown the AG’s office quite a bit and has sued the federal government and companies over all kinds of stuff, including over abortion pill access, opioids, and the Trump travel bans on Muslim majority countries. So he has been around in political spaces in Washington for quite some time now.
Miller: How much is he either tying himself to, or trying to distinguish himself from Jay Inslee?
Lindsay: Yeah, it’s really interesting. He isn’t, really, I mean, he doesn’t talk about Jay Inslee, and hasn’t gone so far as to really criticize Inslee’s policies or anything super directly. And Inslee’s endorsed him. So it’s more of a vibes argument, but Ferguson uses this term “change agent” to talk about what he would bring to the governor’s office. But that seems more broadly philosophical than on any one particular policy.
One example that did emerge on the campaign trail though is in the conversation about our state’s ferry system. Governor Inslee has been all about making the new ferry boats that come into Washington hybrid electric. But Ferguson and other candidates for governor earlier this year basically laid out plans or talked about the urgency of this. Our ferry system is in massive crisis. So in Ferguson’s plan to fix the ferry system, he suggested that he could ask for diesel fuel boats if that’s the fastest way to get more of them online, which is a pretty notable difference from Inslee’s stance who has called diesel like the worst thing ever.
Miller: What can you tell us about the GOP candidate, Dave Reichert?
Lindsay: Dave Reichert is also from Washington. He grew up in Renton which is just southeast of Seattle. And he’s been a law enforcement guy for most of his life. He was a detective on the Green River Killer case, and then he was King County Sheriff for a while, and later he was elected to Congress in the early 2000s before leaving in 2019.
Miller: How much has the issue of crime played out in this race?
Lindsay: Crime isn’t the top issue for most voters. It’s more economic issues. But it
is an important issue for a significant share of voters. And Reichert has a sort of a clearer advantage here being a former cop, and making it a core theme of his campaign. When Reichert talks about issues, he almost always loops it back to crime and has tried to take ownership of that. But Attorney General Bob Ferguson is also trying to push back on that, because as some people may know a nickname for attorneys general – and not all of them like this – but some of them are called “top cop” because attorneys general prosecute cases and things like that.
But the presidential race and the felony conviction of former president, Donald Trump, has also been part of this crime/public safety conversation. And you can hear it in this comment from Ferguson at the first debate last month …
Bob Ferguson [recording]: Let’s get one thing straight. Dave said, “I’m the only public safety candidate.” Dave, I’m sorry, I’m going to take no lectures from you about public safety when you are voting for and supporting a convicted felon for president, who by the way is also a convicted sexual abuser. In that race for president, I support a prosecutor, you support a convicted felon. So you have no standing to say you are somehow the only public safety candidate.
And let’s be perfectly clear, in my time as attorney general, working with prosecutors across the state, when they cannot charge those cases, some endorse him, some endorse me. But they’re united in bringing me the toughest cases, the murders, the attempted murders so we can prosecute those cases.
Lindsay: And in response to that, Reichert leaned on his experience again, and addressed that comment about the presidential race head on. Here he is …
Dave Reichert [recording]: I am the only public safety candidate in this race because I understand police officers – I was one. This is not a money issue as it relates to police departments and sheriff’s offices across the state. This is an issue about trust for cops. And I can explain that later as we go through the debate.
But let me just also say, I hate to disappoint you, Bob, but I am not supporting Mr. Trump. I’m making that announcement tonight. I am also not supporting … Mrs. Harris.
Miller: Long pause there. So Reichert says he’s not supporting Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. What kind of tight rope is he walking here, as he’s been trying to court Independents, or maybe even moderate Democrats, without losing Republican support?
Lindsay: Republicans have not been exactly big winners in Washington lately. The state as a whole is still pretty close to the middle of the political spectrum, but it certainly tilts Democratic overall, especially because of those densely populated areas like Seattle and other places across the state. And Reichert has been walking a very difficult path, for any Republican in a Democratic leaning state in the era of Trump. The Republicans in the state who love Trump and really support him didn’t need to back Reichert in the primary, because they had another candidate, Semi Bird, who’s more aligned with Trump and was endorsed by the state’s GOP delegates earlier this year.
But the Republicans who have won elections in Washington throughout history have been moderates, or folks who work across the aisle, which is not exactly Trump’s style. At the end of the day, Republicans who come out to vote in the general are probably going to vote for the Republican candidate for governor, even if they didn’t back him in the primary.
Reichert is doing everything he can to convince people that he’s this middle of the road Republican, so that he can pick up more support among people who might not love the fact Democrats have held control in Olympia for the past decade. And then, at the same time, the Democrats are doing everything they can to say Reichert is extremely Republican, even when some of his own party says he’s not Republican enough, while others in his party praise him for being a moderate guy. So it’s this very interesting mix of the Republican identity and just how you would approach that in a state like Washington.
Miller: Abortion has also emerged as an issue that Democratic candidates on the ballot across the country have sought to bring up. What is Bob Ferguson saying about this?
Lindsay: This has really been a steady drumbeat of the Ferguson campaign since Reichert got into the race. Ferguson has criticized Reichert’s record on abortion issues. When he was voting in Congress on abortion bills that would have prohibited the procedure after 20 weeks and criminalized doctors if they violated that law, voting against Planned Parenthood. Even at the second debate that these two had, which was focused on business and economic issues, Ferguson managed to bring it up because the candidates were allowed to ask each other a question directly. Here he is talking about that …
Ferguson [recording]: When you were back in Congress, Dave, you voted three times for a nationwide abortion ban that criminalizes doctors. You voted to make certain abortions that are legal in Washington state illegal and criminalize doctors. You also, when you were back in Congress, voted time after time after time to defund Planned Parenthood.
Look, in a post-Dobbs world, where reproductive freedom is on the line all across our country, you have a choice. You can elect a governor who has a history of defending your reproductive freedom, who is endorsed by Planned Parenthood, or someone who says – hey, believe him, or believe the Seattle Times. KUOW reported this story.
Lindsay: And that reporting that he was citing was a story I did earlier this year. Reichert was on tape telling an abortion rights group that the state could start unraveling certain laws by electing more Republicans, in response to a question about funding for Planned Parenthood and healthcare for transgender people.
Miller: So how has Reichert responded to all of this?
Lindsay: Reichert has said that those comments were taken out of context, and he has said that he doesn’t want to change the state’s law. His response at that debate pretty much sums up everything he said publicly about it. Let’s listen …
Reichert [recording]: I will enforce that law as governor. I enforced it when I was a sheriff’s deputy in the ‘70s, kept abortion clinics open as people protested in Federal Way to close them down. My job as a patrol cop was to keep the driveway and the sidewalk open. I will protect your rights, ladies. You have the right to make that choice. The Supreme Court has made a decision. It’s the people of Washington state that make those decisions for women and voters of Washington.
Miller: So let’s turn to other things in the ballot, including some of the four statewide initiatives. One of them is Initiative 2117, which would repeal the state’s Climate Commitment Act. What is that law?
Lindsay: The main part of this law that’s specifically being targeted by 2117 is the state’s cap and trade, or cap and invest program. It’s essentially a carbon market and it went into effect last year. Very, very basically, this law limits the amount of pollution that companies can put out and makes them buy allowances for that pollution. The idea is that these allowances will shrink over time, forcing companies to become carbon neutral by 2050. But the money that the companies pay for these allowances in the meantime is then supposed to be put back into the state’s budget to pay for clean energy programs and infrastructure, and helping people adapt to the effects of climate change that are already being felt.
Miller: What would this initiative mean in terms of transportation projects?
Lindsay: Right, this is a huge part of this conversation. I just did a story about this last month. It would be pretty significant. There’s billions of dollars from the cap and trade program built into the state’s long-term transportation plan, about $5.4 billion, with a “b.” And that’s a third of the whole transportation plan. So if 2117 passes, it would force the legislature to reshuffle all of that spending. And the state’s transportation budget is already in somewhat of a crisis, which would mean, if they can’t find money to pay for what they’ve set out to get done, cuts are kind of inevitable.
Miller: Would those projects just be dead, some of them?
Lindsay: Yeah, some projects like ferries do have Climate Commitment Act money attached to them, but the state can’t just not get more boats, that’s just not an option. So they will find a way to pay for some of those more immediately critical needs. But at least some of those projects will go away if the cap and trade system does.
And lawmakers have talked about looking for other sources of revenue, possibly addressing that with some changes to taxes or looking for money in other parts of the state’s budget. But the Climate Commitment Act, the cap and trade money also goes to other parts of the state’s budget. So if the CCA goes away, the legislature will have to shuffle a lot of dollars around and make cuts, or postpone things for a really long time.
Miller: What kind of messaging is the “Yes” on 2117 campaign using?
Lindsay: Their whole point is that the CCA, the cap and trade program, is a hidden gas tax. It’s not a tax, but they say the cap and trade program is driving up gas prices as companies pass that cost down to everyday people. Now, gas prices have gone up everywhere, but the cap and trade program is impacting gas prices in Washington state. Estimates vary a lot, anywhere between 20 to 40 cents a gallon.
So the whole tagline of the “Yes” on 2117 campaign is “vote, yes, pay less.” But as we’ve been talking about, it’s way more complicated than that, especially if lawmakers have to raise a different tax to pay for some of those projects or cut things, like free bus rides for kids. That’s a case where people would have to pay again. So we’ll see what happens after election day.
Miller: I want to turn to another statewide measure. What would Initiative 2124 do?
Lindsay: This one is really interesting. It would make a new payroll tax completely optional. So that tax, which is like 58 cents for every $100 you make, pays into the state’s new long-term healthcare benefit program. And that gives people a one-time benefit of more than $36,000 to pay for long-term care costs, like caregiver pay or equipment to help people stay in their homes. That benefit isn’t available yet. But this payroll tax is essentially building up the fund to start distributing that benefit in a few years.
The program has some exceptions already for people paying into it. You don’t have to pay into it if you’re a military spouse or if your residential situation is different, if you live in a different state and then work in Washington. But this initiative would make it optional for everybody, so anybody could opt out. And opponents of the initiative say that that could collapse the program, which they say is critical for people who can’t afford these things on their own or who can’t get private care insurance themselves. But people who support the initiative say folks need to be able to choose to pay into it or not, and that the program isn’t workable, or something that the state should even be doing in the first place.
Miller: There is also an initiative put forward by proponents of the natural gas industry. What would Initiative 2066 do?
Lindsay: Yeah, this one is also super interesting. This one would ban local governments and the state government from banning natural gas. And it would also ban them from incentivizing electric, and basically guarantee natural gas for anybody who wants it in their house. It would repeal parts of a law that the legislature passed earlier this year that aimed to help speed up the state’s transition away from natural gas. And it’s pretty significant, this measure got a lot of support, a lot of signatures to put it on the ballot very quickly. But it’s also been getting quite a bit of pushback, including from several city councils who say it would put their electrification plans at risk.
Miller: Have there been efforts at the local or state level to try to ban, say, natural gas hookups in new construction … something that we’ve seen in Oregon and California, and there have been court challenges to this as well, notably in California. But have there been efforts like this in Washington? Or is this more preemptive?
Lindsay: This is sort of a culmination of things that have sort of been bubbling up over the past several years. The state has been making a number of changes to building codes and planning policies to encourage people to move toward electric and limit natural gas. And builders say that it’s made natural gas just too expensive to put into new homes, even though they technically still can do that. And the bill that lawmakers passed earlier this year also had a ban on new natural gas hookups in the initial stages of it being drafted. That was ultimately taken out, so there was no ban included in the bill. But I think people saw that, combined with the changes to the building codes, and they were really agitated about it and worried that the state would take away this option, even though the state hasn’t actually banned natural gas.
Miller: Finally, there is another statewide race for elected office with some interesting wrinkles. What can you tell us about both the public lands commissioner position, and this race?
Lindsay: So the public lands commissioner in Washington heads the Department of Natural Resources, which manages millions of acres of state lands. And it’s also the state’s firefighting response agency. So the lands commissioner’s job is to make sure that DNR is functioning, lead wildfire response, and importantly manage land and timber sales, which can impact school funding and other parts of state government. And Washington, fun fact, is one of only a handful of states that actually elect this job.
This race was super interesting. Most people don’t really know what a public lands commissioner does. But there were multiple candidates – five Democrats and two Republicans – running in the primary. The top Republican in the race is Jaime Herrera Beutler, the former congresswoman from the congressional third district in Southwest Washington. And she got a clear majority of votes to make it onto the general ballot this fall. But the top Democrat and then another Republican were going back and forth for the second spot on the November ballot. And so these two candidates fighting for second place – Dave Upthegrove, the Democrat, and Sue Kuehl Pederson, Republican who was endorsed by the state Republican party – were in such a tight race it prompted a hand recount. And Upthegrove ultimately squeaked out a win with like 49 votes or something like that. It was so, so close.
Miller: Jeanie Lindsay, thanks so much for joining us today.
Lindsay: Yeah. You’re welcome.
Miller: Jeanie Lindsay is the Olympia correspondent at partner station, KUOW.
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