If a clear message was being delivered by voters last week, it was that trust in public officials is in short supply.
Voters across the state seemed to scream mistrust at the top of their lungs, rejecting by wide margins a pair of ballot measures approved by the Legislature. At the same time, they approved two initiatives widely opposed by the political establishment.
Curiously, that mistrust didn’t seem to apply to incumbent candidates. Voters re-elected their state and congressional representatives in droves, leaving essentially the same cast of characters to represent them in Olympia and Washington, D.C. So while voters have little faith in their current leaders, they don’t seem to think the opposition offers anything better.
Most distressingly, voter turnout was abysmal. By the time all the absentee ballots are counted, Snohomish County turnout is projected to be barely more than half of registered voters, meaning some 130,000 county citizens with voter cards chose to ignore the process altogether.
The system is broken. Its keepers, our political party leaders, need to fix it.
Near the top of the list of solutions should be pulling the reins on negative campaign ads. We’re not talking about mailings and other ads that point out substantive differences between candidates and their views. Such distinctions form the bedrock of healthy political debate. We mean the "hit pieces" that cynically distort or misstate an opponent’s record, that make below-the-belt personal attacks, or that seek to inflame hatred.
State Rep. Dave Schmidt, who believes he was targeted with this kind of advertising in his successful bid for the 44th District Senate seat this year, plans to introduce a bill next session aimed at reducing the amount of money parties can spend on such pieces. Currently, state and local parties are limited in how much cash they can give to a candidate, but not in how much they can spend on certain mailings on a candidate’s behalf. Schmidt’s idea would have such mailings count against the party’s spending limit. It would be a good start.
But fundamentally, responsible campaign behavior is up to the parties themselves. In doing whatever it takes to win a particular race, they’re making losers of everyone by turning voters off and putting a damper on civic participation. Ruthless hit pieces undermine the public’s trust in both sides, damaging the very process the parties should be advancing. The parties need to take the lead by working together to find ways to keep campaigns out of the gutter.
Political campaigns should be about an honest, thorough exchange of views, not an exercise in character assassination. Until our political parties buy into that notion and act on it, they’ll continue a downward spiral that undermines the essence and effectiveness of our democracy.
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