Pierce County conservatives have their say in general election, help defeat R-88
Washington state voters approved Initiative 976 by a 53-47 percent margin in the Nov. 5 general election, with 34 of 39 counties supporting the measure to cap annual state and local car tabs at $30 and cut transportation funding.
Pierce County was among them. The die was cast when the votes were tallied in Tacoma, an analysis of precinct results by The News Tribune found.
Voters in the city of Tacoma backed Tim Eyman’s I-976 by a slight margin. A large no vote in Tacoma could have overcome or blunted yes votes in the suburbs and rural areas, but that didn’t pan out. Pierce County supported the initiative in a landslide — 65.75 percent to 34.25 percent.
The close statewide race was Referendum 88, which would have allowed state and local governments to use affirmative action to remedy discrimination against disadvantaged groups in public education, employment and contracting.
Washington voters narrowly rejected R-88 by 50.56 per cent to 49.44 per cent — about 20,000 votes out of 1.8 million cast.
Although Tacoma voted to approve R-88 by 7,165 votes, the other large cities in Pierce County rejected it — with the biggest vote margins in Puyallup and Bonney Lake.
In the end, Pierce County rejected the referendum 56.1 percent to 43.9 percent.
“Despite Washington state’s willingness to be out on the fore on progressive measures, it’s still a place where they are not a sure thing, and Pierce County is a big part of why,” said Ben Anderstone, a political consultant with Progressive Strategies NW, which has offices in Tacoma and Seattle.
In the hotly contested race for the Tacoma Port Commission, Position 5, Tacoma voters delivered the victory to Kristin Ang over Dave Bryant.
Initiative 976
Tacoma voters approved I-976, but only by 2,089 votes — 24,339 to 22,250.
Anderstone said he didn’t see surprises in the precinct results from Tacoma.
“So besides that core urban Tacoma, the progressive and more well-to-do parts of Tacoma, (the no vote) had tough going,” he said.
Support for I-976 was considerably stronger in Lakewood, where there were 7,652 votes in favor and 3,726 against.
That also was the case in Puyallup, where voters were in favor of the initiative by nearly a 2-to-1 margin — 7,377 to 3,777.
Voters also backed I-976 in University Place by 5,809 to 3,677 and in Bonney Lake, 3,749 to 1,246.
In a county where Democrats and Republicans compete in political races, Pierce “is a really tough place when it comes to taxes,” Anderstone said.
“It’s got a lot of those working-class voters. It’s got a lot of folks who don’t necessarily have a ton of monthly savings. It’s a place where sales tax and property tax and our regressive tax structure affects people in a pretty clear way more than most places,” he said.
Alex Hays, a Republican political consultant, said the strength of the countywide yes vote on I-976 surprised him.
“That level of consensus on a complex policy topic does not occur very often. What I think you definitely see here is people who normally vote for the Democratic Party were really rejecting how the Democrats have governed on transportation policy,” he said.
Referendum 88
The referendum came out of Tacoma with a 7,165-vote lead.
Anderstone said the vote to approve R-88 did well in the progressive parts of Tacoma, such as the North End, downtown and the Hilltop. It also picked up support in the South End and other areas of the city that supported Eyman’s I-976, he said.
Of the largest cities in Pierce County, Tacoma would be the only one with a majority of voters approving R-88.
The margin of victory for the reject vote was narrowest in University Place, where the reject voters prevailed by only 166 votes -- 4,687 to 4,521.
The result also was relatively close in Lakewood, where the reject vote prevailed 5,900 to 5,197.
Voters in Puyallup rejected it 6,273 to 4,395. In Bonney Lake, the reject vote was 3,099 to 1,755.
Hays, the GOP political consultant, said the R-88 results are another sign of Pierce County becoming more conservative.
“It was almost a tie statewide. But for that strong vote out of Pierce County, it obviously would have passed,” he said.
Anderstone said Pierce County was a good barometer for the challenges that the approve R-88 campaign faced, given the number of white Democrats and swing voters and where they stand on cultural issues like affirmative action.
The campaign in favor of R-88 didn’t attract the support of many of those voters, he added.
Tacoma Port Commission, Position 5
Dave Bryant carried Bonney Lake by 2,441 to 1,682, but Kristin Ang beat him narrowly in Puyallup and Lakewood, more comfortably in University Place and by a blowout in Tacoma.
Ang is a critic of Puget Sound Energy’s liquefied natural gas project on the Tideflats and other fossil-fuel projects. Bryant said in a Nov. 1 Facebook post that he would work to “focus on making the port eco-friendly, culturally diverse, financially sustainable and empowering businesses at the port to create great paying jobs.”
The precinct vote tallies showed:
▪ Puyallup: Ang, 4,846 and Bryant, 4,757 — a margin of 89 votes.
▪ Lakewood: Ang, 5,243 and Bryant, 4,884 — a difference of 359 votes.
▪ University Place: Ang, 4,727 and Bryant, 3,543 — a 1,184-vote margin.
▪ Tacoma, Ang, 27,352 votes, and Bryant, 15,137 -- a 12,215-vote difference.
Hays, the GOP political consultant, said Bryant operated a “very modest, nonexistent” campaign. Ang’s campaign was more aggressive in terms of ideology, he added.
Given Ang’s wide lead in Tacoma, Bryant had to “really crush” in the unincorporated parts of the county but it didn’t pan out, Hays said.
Anderstone said the precinct results offer a glimpse into a shifting electorate in Pierce County. He noted, for example, that 69 percent of voters in Graham voted to reject R-88 and 82 percent voted in favor of I-976.
“The folks who have moved out there looking for affordable family housing; people who are willing to commute a ways, or work in light industrial jobs on the periphery of the metro area — those voters are pretty darn tax-skeptical and have some culturally-conservative leans, too,” he said. “They are easy to forget in Washington where the stereotypical voter is an NPR tote bag-wielding Whole Foods shopper.”
This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 6:00 AM.
