Earlier this year I described how Washington state senator Dan Swecker was trying to give a state subsidy to the private anti-equality activities of Gary Randall and Larry Stickney:

The Crumbling Coalition of Fanatical Fringe knows that they’re unlikely to gather enough signatures to get a referendum on the ballot.  If they didn’t, Sen. Swecker wouldn’t have tried to give them a state subsidy by pushing Amendment 32, which would have required that the new DP law go directly to a voter referendum.  What do I mean by state subsidy?  Well, as Ken Hutcherson and Joseph Backholm have already explained, getting enough signatures this year would be even more difficult and expensive than previously.  This is because the number of valid signatures required to get a referendum on the ballot is 4% of voter turnout at the last major election, and turnout was huge for the presidential election…Swecker’s amendment would have relieved them of the costs, work and gamble of playing Referendum Roulette with other peoples’ money.  And, of course, the embarrassment yet again failing to get enough signatures.

When Gary Randall mentioned the other day that Swecker is still deeply involved with the referendum to repeal Washington’s incremental domestic partnership law (Ref. 71), I realized that I had yet to determine whether this subsidy thing was a habit of his.  Indeed it is.

Looking at the 2006 bill that added sexual orientation and gender identity/expression to the state’s anti-discrimination laws (HB 2661), as well as the domestic partnership bills of 2007 (SB 5336), 2008 (HB 3104) and 2009 (SB 5688), I found that Swecker proposed five (5) of his own amendments and supported two (2) amendments proposed by others to subsidize the private anti-equality industry by trying to insert an automatic referendum clause into the bill.

Here are the details, bill by bill:

  • 2006.  When HB 2661 came up for debate on the senate floor, Swecker proposed Amendment 22 and Amendment 23.  Both amendments would have allowed Gary Randall & Co. to bypass the risky and expensive referendum signature gathering process by compelling the Secretary of State to automatically place the new law on the ballot in the next general election.  Both amendments failed.  (So did Gary’s ensuing referendum when Gary was forced to gather signatures like everyone else.)
  • 2007.  Swecker’s colleague Senator Benton proposed two amendments mandating the referendum subsidy during debate on SB 5336.  The first was in the Government Operations & Elections Committee executive session on February 1, 2007.  The second was on the senate floor on March 1st (Amendment 30).  Although Swecker voted for both amendments, they failed.
  • 2008.  Swecker showed up late to the Government Operations & Elections Committee session on February 25, 2008, and so was not present to pitch any subsidizing amendments or even debate on or vote against moving HB 3104 out of committee. However, he somewhat made up for his sloth by advancing the private subsidy Amendment 197 on the senate floor.  It failed.
  • 2009.  Swecker out-did himself trying to slip a subsidy referendum for Gary & Larry into SB 5688.  During the February 12, 2009 executive session of the Government Operations & Elections Committee, he pitched his usual subsidy referendum amendment.  It failed, so he tried again on the senate floor on March 10th (Amendment 32) and failed again.  

    At every opportunity, when a pro-equality bill came before a committee he was in (and showed up for) or on the senate floor, Swecker either pitched his own amendment to subsidize the private anti-equality industry, or voted in favor of one pitched by a colleague.  In every instance, these amendments FAILED.  Not only does Senator Dan Swecker have a habit of trying to give state subsidies to the private anti-equality industry, but he has a perfect record of FAILURE in doing so.  

    I thought that republicans opposed welfare as a rule.  Well, all I can say is, after watching Gary Randall pay himself a fat paycheck from donor funds and Larry Stickney bungle, well, just about everything, I guess I can’t blame Swecker for trying to rig a little public largess for his buddies.  Seems a bit of a conflict of interest though, seeing as Swecker is both campaign manager and board officer for Gary’s Faith & Freedom PAC.

    Cross-posted at Washblog.