Last year the democrats circulated petitions to authorize the county charter initiative for the ballot in the hopes that they could go waaaaay to the left with an environmental bill of rights guaranteeing that tree would have legal representation and fracking would be prohibited. Oddly enough, trees control the politics in this county that is 97% government and national forest land.
Well, the petitioners gathered enough votes and the issue hit the ballot along with the required number of freeholder candidates running for positions in the convention. As the election drew near it began to look as though there was growing support for common sense candidates and libertarians and the democrats whole control the county turned against their own initiative and defeated it.
The outcome was no surprise, but the show was fun to watch.
Sounds like what happened here in Kitsap in 1999-2000. I worked hard collecting signatures to turn Kitsap into a Charter County and then I was the Vice Chair of the committee that formed after we passed the Freeholder or the first part of the process to encourage voting for the Charter.
The D’s were on board until the 11th hour when the majority conservative Freeholder’s would not insert language authorizing a County Ombudsman and would increase the commissioner districts into 5 council districts elected by an at-large vote of the entire county. The conservatives wanted the council members elect by district.
The Dims knew this would destroy their dependable 20,000+ liberal voting advantage they enjoy from Bainbridge Island...so the Charter died on election night.
We are still considering making a move towards a Charter as we do every 20 years or so or until peoples collective memory of the last attempt fades. This time, we are looking to do it via the commissioners...we just have to elect a “balance” of representation on the county commission first. Ed Wolfe is hopefully the first step in that direction. You know Ed don’t you?