Twenty-one years ago, voters in Washington State adopted Initiative 200. Modeled after California’s Proposition 209, its operative clause was as follows:
The state shall not discriminate against, or grant preferential treatment to, any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin in the operation of public employment, public education, or public contracting.
The initiative thus outlawed both “affirmative action style” preferences as well as the more traditional kind of discrimination. The vote wasn’t close: 58.22 % of voters supported it.
Unlike Proposition 209, however, Initiative 200 merely created a statute. It did not amend the Washington State Constitution. Some folks has been trying to get the legislature to repeal it ever since. Recently, they got their way. The new legislation is called Initiative 1000. Adopted on a party-line vote, it purports merely to amend Initiative 200, but in fact it completely guts it.
Fortunately, through the hard work of Washington Asians for Equality, the issue has been forced into a referendum, now titled Referendum 88. It’s on the ballot for November.
To Washington State Voters: Please vote to reject Initiative 1000’s effort to gut the original Initiative 200 by voting “NO” on Referendum 88 (There are many reasons to vote no, but here some reasons that are less well known.)
To Everyone: The heroic little organization that forced this to a vote—Washington Asians for Equality—is being vastly outspent by the opposition. If you have some extra money, please consider sending it their way. I have dug pretty deep into my pockets. This is important. If we lose this referendum, the MSM will treat it as gospel that public opinion has shifted on this. It won’t matter how much polling evidence there is to the contrary (and there is plenty).
h/t GH