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Political Factoid
State initiatives had their start
as a populist tool
-- a way of bypassing the Southern Pacific
Railroad's dominance of the California
Legislature and taking issues to the people.
Initiatives are now a vehicle
for big companies and big boys.
- "Bellevue plutocrat Kemper Freeman Jr.
has invested $1.2 million in Tim Eyman's
Initiative 1125, obviously hoping to
block light rail's move to the Eastside."
- "The American Beverage Association spent
an obscene $16.9 million last year to
roll back a modest soda-pop tax, and
deprive Washington's schools of
desperately needed money."
- Costco spent over $22 million to
promote initiatives to piratize the
liquor sales in Washington state.
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