Political Activists in Pinstripes
In January, Eddie Spaghetti figured this was the year he could take it easy. Spaghetti isn’t his real name—it’s Edward Agazarm—but that’s what everyone in the state’s political world calls him. If you haven’t heard the name before, you know his work. Spaghetti runs the biggest signature-gathering operation in the state, Citizen Solutions, and every May and June, his crews can be found in front of shopping malls and big-box stores. But only if there’s an initiative campaign willing to pay.
“My partner Roy and I were looking at each other and thinking we weren’t going to get anything this year,” Spaghetti says. “We were going to take the year off. And then all hell broke loose.”
What happened this spring was astonishing even to insiders. Six big-budget initiative campaigns came from nowhere, setting state records for the speed with which they gathered signatures and the amounts they wound up paying for them. It was a terrific year for Spaghetti—he landed three of the contracts. And the money keeps pouring into campaign coffers—$32 million by Labor Day, easily topping the previous state record for spending on initiatives, $22.8 million in 2005. How high it will go is anyone’s guess, but every day brings a new report of a six-figure media buy.
Behind it all is something just as striking. Five of the measures are sponsored by business, and never before has the state’s business community taken so many front-and-center issues to the ballot at the same time. The sixth, an income-tax measure backed by labor unions, social-service organizations and Bill Gates Sr., is countered by a business campaign every bit as vigorous. You might say that this year Washington business has become one big hotbed of political activism.
The Unified Field Theory
Of course, most initiatives, any year, have some sort of big-money backing, either from business or from labor. It takes deep pockets to run a campaign. And at first glance, it might be hard to see what makes this year’s Business Five so different. Certainly, there doesn’t seem to be a common thread. One’s about workers’ comp and two are about liquor stores. One measure makes it harder for the Legislature to raise taxes in the future and another rolls back a few it approved in the past.
But the way most folks in the business lobby see it, the
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