2024 General Election Part I: Initiatives & Federal Offices
This year, I am doing a two-part voter guide because there is so much on our ballot. Stay tuned for Part II! You can find the official Thurston County Voters' Pamphlet here.
I have included info on what polling says about voting your conscience over Gaza without putting Trump in office. But if you have friends in swing states, ask them to vote for Harris.
INITIATIVES
Initiative # 2066: vote NO
Initiative # 2109: vote NO
"The capital gains tax skims 7 percent in profits from stocks and bonds and other assets over $262,000. Unfortunately, the tax doesn’t apply to the sales of homes, small businesses, farm land, farm equipment, livestock, timberland, commercial fishing, and auto dealership sales, so it hits fewer than 4,000 people in a state of 8 million, a little less than half of whom file taxes. If you’re reading this, then there’s a 99.9% chance that you do not pay this tax."
Initiative #2117: vote NO
"The state sets an emissions cap and then regularly holds auctions where polluters can buy and sell permits that allow them to comply with the cap while continuing to pollute. As the cap lowers, the price of these allowances rises, which incentivizes polluters to find ways to lower their emissions. Voila, a market-based way to curb carbon emissions."
Initiative #2124: Vote NO
- In-home care
- Meal delivery
- Transportation to appointments
- Mobility and assistive devices
- Care supplies
- Part-time caregiver
PRESIDENT
The short answer here is Harris. But if you have strong feelings on Gaza, you will probably be able to vote for anyone but Trump in WA without swinging the state.
If you have friends in swing states though, make sure they're voting for Harris because a second Trump presidency will be far, far more damaging than the first. Every vote in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona is extremely important. Margins are razor thin in the swing states.
Voting against Democrats: Recent polling shows Harris with a 10+ point lead in WA, so if you want to vote your conscience on Gaza (or whatever) you should probably be able to vote for anyone who's not Trump without contributing to our slide into true authoritarianism. On the other hand, polls have been wrong about Trump many times in the past and he has been gaining on Harris in recent polls nationwide. It's not without risk.
If you choose to vote against the Ds, though, please send a postcard to Harris and/or your other elected representatives to tell them why you voted for someone else. Without that feedback, they won't know how many people are serious about changing these policies. And we need them to know.
Voting for Harris/Walz: The Democrats took a big and unusual (for them) risk in getting Biden to step down. In addition to the fact that a Harris win gives us more time to save our democracy, it will let the Democrats know that they did the right thing in getting Biden out. And we need a Democratic party that is more responsive to younger people and, in general, our current reality, if we are going to avoid worse outcomes for ourselves, Gaza, Ukraine, etc. I'll be voting for Harris.
FEDERAL OFFICES
U.S. Senator: Vote for Maria Cantwell or no one/write in.
Maria Cantwell is a so-so democratic Senator. She's a reliable vote on most positive legislation in the Senate and we desperately need that if our federal government is going to do anything beyond simply staving off the worst of right-wing authoritarianism. The reality is that if we get a Senate majority we might get a few good bills across the finish line; if we don't, we need Senators to hold the line. Cantwell supports reproductive rights and she'll fight for social security. The Stranger, Planned Parenthood, and various unions have endorsed her.
That said, she should be doing more on Gaza and she is polling well ahead of her challenger so if you want to make a statement this vote is a good place to do so. Either don't vote, or write-in someone and then send a postcard to her office letting her know why.
Or do vote for her, and send a postcard to her office telling her to do more, which is what I will be doing.
Whatever you do, don't vote for her challenger. Dr. Raul Garcia is a Republican running on the vaguest platform he could possibly devise as a way to court moderate voters. Here's a sample of his tepid nonsense. He's endorsed by a long list of individual Republicans and the Farm Bureau. That's it. Frankly, I don't believe his answers: for example, he says he's anti-abortion but says he will fight to uphold WA's pro-choice stance.
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT #10: Vote Strickland
Marilyn Strickland is a former Tacoma mayor who has represented us in Congress for two terms. She does decent work on things like housing, infrastructure, support for service members and veterans, and reproductive rights. She's endorsed by a ton of people and groups including The Stranger, the Progressive Voter's Guide, Planned Parenthood, a long list of unions, the Tacoma Pierce County Black Collective, Olympia Indivisible, the Korean-American Democratic Committee, the list goes on.
Her opponent, Don Hewett, is running on a typical Republican platform of less government, more family values, more police/military, and "America First". His website includes such nuggets as: "I believes that the United States maintains a military to protect our homeland and impose America’s will on its enemies and to prevent a would be enemy from doing so to the United States" and "I believes that law and order is paramount for our society. These are the guy who keep us safe and make sacrifices that we many never know to do this."
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