Article by Erik Smith. Published on Wednesday, June 24, 2010 EST.

I-1100 Should Easily Qualify for Ballot – Distributors Throw Another Half-Million Dollars at Competing Measure

Boxes of petitions are trundled into the state elections office in Olympia.

By Erik Smith

Staff writer/ Washington State Wire

OLYMPIA, June 23.—A liquor-store privatization initiative is practically guaranteed a spot on this fall’s ballot after backers of Initiative 1100 dropped off nearly 400,000 signatures at the state elections office Wednesday.

            Meanwhile, fresh Public Disclosure Commission reports demonstrate that liquor distributors are stepping up their effort to place a competing initiative on the ballot. The big contributions are fueling a down-to-the-wire signature-gathering effort.

            Both measures would junk the liquor-store system under which hard liquor has been sold in this state since the end of Prohibition 77 years ago. They compete head-to-head on a single major point. I-1100 would allow retailers to strike deals with manufacturers and would cut out the middleman. I-1105 would require retailers to buy from liquor distributors and would protect their position in the marketplace.

            Over 396,000 Signatures

The campaign for Initiative 1100 delivered 396,005 signatures, by its own count. That’s far in excess of the 241,000 signatures that are required, and it virtually assures that the campaign will make the ballot. State elections officials will conduct a random sample of the validity of the signatures starting July 6 and expect to announce their findings a few days after that, said Brian Zylstra, spokesman for the secretary of state’s office.

             The measure’s most enthusiastic supporter has been Costco, the Issaquah-based chain of warehouse stores. Costco is far and away the measure’s biggest financial backer, and its employees circulated petitions in stores on company time. Costco has contributed another $200,000 in cash since last report, bringing its total for cash and indirect aid to $842,121. About $1,500 comes from other sources.

            One point has been lost in much of the coverage of the issue, however, said campaign treasurer Glenn Avery. The Modernize Washington campaign that is behind the initiative was launched well before Costco announced its support, and it actually filed two initiatives – one favoring retailers, the other favoring distributors. The campaign settled on the retailer version when retailer support became clear.

            Less than half the signatures collected came directly from Costco stores – the percentage was “somewhere in the high forties,” he said. The remainder came from paid and volunteer signature gatherers who fanned out across the state. The campaign lasted 27 days.

          Distributors Raise Ante

            The latest Public Disclosure Commission filings show that the distributors regard I-1100 as a threat. In recent days the reports show they have contributed an additional $464,000 to I-1105, bringing the total for that campaign to $864,000.

            The money comes from two sources. Young’s Market Company, a Los Angeles-based liquor distributor, has contributed $530,000.

            Odom Southern Holdings of Bellevue, Wash. has contributed $334,000. The Odom Corp. is a beverage distributor operating in the Pacific Northwest, and it distributes liquor in Alaska. It is a strategic partner of liquor-distribution giant Southern Wine and Spirits of America.

            Charla Neuman, spokeswoman for the I-1105 campaign, said Tuesday that the late-starting campaign is on track to amass the signatures it needs. The campaign must turn in signatures by July 2.

            A Top-Six Finish

            The signature score for I-1100 may be impressive, but it’s far from the state record. Zylstra, citing a list of the state’s top signature drives, said it appears at least four campaigns have topped 1100’s figure.

            Initiative 282, a 1973 measure that repealed salary increases for elected officials, submitted a staggering 699,098 signatures. At that point, Zylstra said, Washington’s population was only 3.44 million, about half of the current 6.7 million people.

            Other top signature-getters were Tim Eyman’s successful I-695 in 1999, which limited car-tab fees (514,141); I-602 in 1993, an unsuccessful tax-limit measure (440,160); and I-912 in 2005, an unsuccessful measure that sought to repeal a gas-tax increase imposed by the Legislature that year (400,996).

            Exactly where I-1100 will fall in the all-time rankings depends on the final signature count that will be announced by elections officials next month. Another campaign finished so close to 1100’s number that the ranking can’t be called. I-920 in 2006 submitted 395,219 signatures. That unsuccessful measure would have repealed Washington’s estate tax.

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