A lot of people have rightly expressed concerns about mail in ballots being used to rig our elections here in Washington State. For example, there were 4 million ballots counted in the 2020 election – a gain of one million ballots over the 3 million ballots cast in 2016. This was a 33% increase in ballots counted despite only a 5% increase in population. But there is another illegal way our elections are rigged. In this article, we will look at the role that bribery and kickback schemes play in rigging our elections.
What the Washington State Constitution says about Elections
Article 1 Section 19 of our State Constitution requires “all elections to be free and equal.” Free and equal means no money is required to run for office and all candidates are treated equally. The goal is that the person with the best ideas to solve our problems should win rather than the candidate with the most money. It also means that all candidates are to be treated equally by the media – what used to be called the Fairness Doctrine. Equal treatment means that all candidates are asked the same questions and their answers are published verbatim. If the paper wants to print an editorial promoting a candidate, equal space is allowed for opposing candidates to express their own point of view.
In addition, Article 2, Section 30 of our State Constitution prohibits bribery or corruption of elected officials. It is the only crime specifically mentioned in our State Constitution. But instead of free and equal elections not influenced by bribery, we now have elections which are essentially bidding wars where the rich and powerful give hundreds of millions of dollars in bribes (also known as campaign contributions) to the most corrupt candidates - and the corporate media give these same corrupt candidates hundreds of millions of additional dollars in free media promotion and hundreds of millions of dollars more in attack and hit pieces on the opponents of their preferred candidates. It is not known what the total amount of bribery is in Washington State. But in federal elections in 2020, the total was $14.4 billion dollars. It is on pace to exceed $20 billion in the 2024 election. Divide this number by 50 States and you get $400 million for Washington State – just for federal elections and not counting the hidden media money spent on corporate candidates.
It is likely that the total spent on all elections, including the hidden media propaganda, will be over $1 billion in our State in 2024. The reward for electing corrupt candidates is that once elected, corrupt politicians pay back their powerful donors with about $30 billion per year in illegal kickbacks called tax breaks. Over a 4 year election cycle, the rich and powerful get $120 billion in State tax breaks for their $1 billion investment in their corrupt candidates.
Tax breaks for wealthy corporations violate at least three sections of our State Constitution. Article 1, Section 12 prohibits granting any citizen or corporation special privileges or immunities (note that granting tax breaks is giving a citizen or corporation a special privilege or immunity). To make this issue even clearer, Article 2, Section 28 prohibits special tax breaks for any corporation. Finally, Article 1, Section 7 which requires a uniform system of State taxes. Giving away $30 billion a year in State tax breaks forces the rest of us to pay twice as much in State taxes to make up the difference. Sadly, despite having the strongest Constitutional prohibitions against tax breaks, Washington leads the nation in illegal tax breaks for wealthy corporations.
Why the Most Corrupt Candidates Nearly Always Win
It is an unfortunate fact that the candidate who raises the most money nearly always wins. But this is typically not because they raised the most money. It is because the candidate who raises the most money also gets the most corporate media coverage. It is true that a candidate with a million dollars can send a million fliers (at a cost of a dollar each) to voters. This is why, just before the primary and general elections, our mailboxes are filled with fliers from the most wealthy candidates. But voters rarely read these fliers. Most of the fliers wind up in the recycling bin.
What really elects candidates are the millions of dollars in hidden and unreported campaign contributions given by the corporate media in promoting their preferred candidates. Voters are often told that the only two “viable” candidates are the two who raised the most money. This becomes a self fulfilling prophecy as the top two candidates are the only ones mentioned in articles read by millions of people before the election. If any bottom up grassroots candidates are mentioned at all, it is to condemn them for daring to challenge the corporate media’s preferred candidates.
How this Bribery and Kickback Scheme is Rigging the 2024 Election
Incumbents always hold a major fundraising advantage over challengers – which is why incumbents win over 90% of their reelection campaigns. However, this year, there is no incumbent running for Governor or Attorney General. So let’s look at how much candidates for these two offices have raised in “early money” as of April 7, 2024.
The total raised by the 4 Democrats (only two of whom are still in the race) has been $9.1 million. The total raised by 2 Republicans has been $2.5 million. Democrats have at least a three to one advantage in reported fund raising. But this is not the whole story. The corporate media has published dozens of propaganda articles and interviews promoting Bob Ferguson and Dave Reichert. If you read these articles, you might conclude that there is no point in even having a Primary election. Ironically, the candidate who has invested the most time and effort in the Governor’s race as been Semi Bird. He has made hundreds of campaign stops all across Washington state meeting with voters and listening to their concerns. He is also the only candidate who even mentions the importance of our State Constitution. Meanwhile, Dave Reichert refuses to even debate with Semi Bird.
The hidden promotion of their favored candidates had a predictable result. The average of the two latest polls (from February and March 2024) have Bob Ferguson and Dave Reichert far ahead of Semi Bird and Mark Mullet. https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/polls/governor/2024/washington/
Notice that even though Mullet has raised over a million dollars, he is not polling well because, like Semi Bird, Mullet is not one of the corporate media’s preferred candidates.
There is a similar bribery and kickback scheme going on in the Attorney General race.
The total raised by the 3 Democrats (only two of whom are still in the race) has been nearly $3 million. This is 38 times more than the $77,000 raised by the loan Republican in this race. But if this were not enough, the corporate media have done several articles and interviews promoting “tough on crime” Nick Brown versus “soft on crime” Manka Dhingra. If Pete Serrano is mentioned at all, it is to denigrate him for suing Jay Inslee over the business lock downs, mask mandates and shot mandates.
How New Tools can help Bottom Up Candidates overcome the Bribery and Kickback Scheme
On the surface, if campaign contributions and millions of dollars in free corporate media promotion are the determining factors, it does not appear that either Semi Bird or Pete Serrano have much of a chance of making it past the Primary – much less winning the General Election. However, there are a couple of factors that offer reason for hope. The first is that a huge percent of voters are still undecided – despite the media blitz for the corporate candidates. These undecided voters are likely Independent voters who are the very group we are focused on attracting with the Washington Common Sense Coalition.
https://washingtoncommonsensecoalition.org/
The second new tool is the Common Sense Network.org which is based on a free relationship and movement building tool called Freedica.
Unlike Facebook and Twitter, the Common Sense Network allows members to build relationships with others in their local community based on issues that matter most to them.
Also unlike Facebook and Twitter, members are not subjected to censorship or shadow banning merely for expressing their concerns about government corruption.
The goal of both of these new tools is to level the playing field by putting the power back where it belongs – in the hands of the people rather than the corporate dominated media.
Let’s Lay the Foundation for a Better Future by Building a Common Sense Movement
Even should our bottom up candidates not prevail in the coming Primary or General Election, these new organizing tools can be used to build an enduring political movement for future elections. While it is hard to predict the future, one thing is certain: The only way to end Bribery and Kickback Schemes is to elect candidates with the courage to promote REAL change.
And the only way to get REAL change and Common Sense solutions to the problems we face is to elect candidates who advocate for and understand the need for REAL change and Common Sense solutions. Changing government to a Common Sense government of the people, by the people and for the people is not about any single election. It is about changing hearts and changing minds.
If we do not win, the Crazy Crowd in Olympia will continue to:
1: Raise property taxes by thousands of dollars a year due to the illegal Levy Swipe.
2. Fire teachers due to Woke policies which drive down school enrollment.
3. Drive up child care costs by hundreds of dollars a month due to over regulation of child care providers.
4. Drive up the cost of natural gas to force homeowners to spend $40,000 to convert to electric heating.
5. Drive up the cost of “grid” (hydro) electric to force homeowners to install $50,000 in solar panels.
6. Drive up the cost of gasoline to force commuters to pay $40,000 to replace their gas-powered cars with electric powered cars.
None of these problems will go away until we elect Common Sense candidates who will restore Common Sense policies and Common Sense solutions in Olympia.
If our Common Sense changes do not happen in this election, then we need to continue to build our Common Sense Movement with the goal of winning the next election. We need to recognize that it may take time to build our Common Sense Movement. Eventually, undecided Independent voters will realize that we are offering them and their children a chance to have a better future free from the oppressive over regulation of the Crazy Crowd.
It took nearly 8 years and several elections for Lincoln and other opponents of slavery to build a new political movement called the Republican Party. It may take more that 8 months to build our Common Sense Movement. The Common Sense Network offers us a way to build a new political coalition capable of winning local and State races here in Washington.
If you would like to give our Common Sense Network a try, just go to Common Sense Network dot org and click Join. We look forward to meeting you!