We won in court last week — and the judge gave us some very clear, very honest, language for our petition gathering, which will start in the next few days.
And, as a fellow supporter, I wanted to say thank you — and share with you the language that was approved for this campaign, so you can be sure as to exactly what we’re trying to do with I-594.
It’s game time — and we need to get enough signatures to make sure that Washington can vote to protect our families by requiring a background check on all gun purchases.
That’s how good things can happen in Washington. After a two-year campaign of obstruction, a group of Senators finally relented, voting to end debate and bring the nomination of Richard Cordray to a vote. The Senate confirmed Cordray later yesterday, and he was sworn in this morning.
We wanted you to know, as one of the more than 160,000 signers of petitions telling the Senate to Confirm Director Cordray and Let the CFPB Do Its Job. In recent weeks, AFR and allied groups have delivered these petitions physically to the offices of 13 Senators, and electronically to the entire Senate. Meanwhile, around the country, editorials, op eds, and blog posts have demanded Cordray’s confirmation, while refuting false claims made about the CFPB’s supposed lack of accountability and “unprecedented” funding and structure.
It made a difference. The public interest prevailed. “The political stalemate is over,” Senator Elizabeth Warren (who first conceived the idea for the CFPB) declared. “There is no doubt the consumer agency will survive beyond the crib.”
The creation of this agency stands as one of the biggest and clearest victories yet won in the struggle for fundamental reform of the financial system. In its short life, the CFPB has already:
Moved to rid the mortgage market of loans designed to self-destruct
Shielded military families against various financial scams
Returned nearly half a billion dollars to consumers cheated by credit card companies; and
Begun to tackle a host of other problems, including predatory payday loans, excessive bank overdraft fees, abusive debt collection practices and the plight of students and families trapped in high-cost private education loans.
What happens tomorrow afternoon could determine who has more power in our state — 80% of Washington‘s citizens, or a tiny group composed of the national NRAleadership and the local gun lobby.
Last week, after the secretary of state released the language that we will use on our petitions to ensure that Washington gets to vote on requiring anyone buying a gun to pass a simple background check, that tiny group of ideologues filed a lawsuit to change it.
So we have to go to court tomorrow afternoon — and the judge’s decision on how we word the ballot title could be the difference between passing a measure that 80% of us support, or letting the NRA leadership and the gun lobby have their way.
I know, it doesn’t seem like much, but the wording of a petition will matter A LOT when voters decide if they want to help us get on the ballot.
With fair wording, it’s going to be up to the voters to make their own decision — and we have a great change to make our state a lot safer.
With unfair wording, the NRA leadership and the gun lobby can scare a lot of voters who support criminal background checks away — and who knows what could happen.
English: , member of the United States House of Representatives (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’m happy to report that Sunday I was able to sign a new operating budget for the state of Washington and avert a partial government shutdown.
It is unfortunate it took this long to reach a budget agreement, but I am pleased that we delivered on many of the key principles you and I fought for during my campaign.
We made our budget priorities clear: funding education, protecting vital services, and closing tax loopholes. We didn’t get everything we wanted — that’s the nature of negotiation. But, with your help, we stayed strong, and I am pleased that we were able to pass a budget that delivers $1 billion in education funding and protects vital programs for Washington’s kids and seniors.
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The budget I signed Sunday is a down payment on our commitment to fulfilling our legal and moral duty to fund education for our children — but it is clearly only the beginning.
What this budget is not is a vehicle for irresponsible, bad policy — like devastating cuts to essential services for our most vulnerable neighbors, or dramatic anti-labor, anti-environment, and anti-consumer policy initiatives.
I’m proud of that — and you should be, too — because if you and I hadn’t held the line, that’s exactly what it would have been.
Along with these key wins on the budget, I’m pleased that the Medicare expansion made possible by Obamacare is going to increase access for Washingtonians and create jobs.
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Unfortunately, it’s also clear we have a lot of work to do.
I am disappointed we were not able to reach an agreement with senate Republicans to close a number of unnecessary tax loopholes. This year’s improved revenue forecast helped us meet our short-term goals, and made clear that we did need to find new revenue, but I remain committed to securing a long-term education funding strategy by fixing these loopholes in upcoming sessions.
I’m also disappointed that senate Republicans refused to bring to a vote to pass a much-needed transportation package.
Our transportation infrastructure is the lifeblood of our economy, and continuing to ignore it is not an option.
But today I want to thank you again for standing by us, making your voice heard, and keeping up the fight for the working Washington we’re building together.
We’re going to need you again in the weeks and months to come, and I’m proud to have you by my side.
And this week, we got the language from the secretary of state, which will be finalized the week of July 8. After that, we can start our petition drive to make sure that criminal background checks are on the ballot in 2014.
With your help, we’re going to make sure that every single person purchasing a gun in Washington has to pass a criminal background check — and keep our families safe.
Thanks for pledging your support to help us make this simple, commonsense reform the law.
We’re very excited by how quickly this campaign has been coming together, and that is a direct result of the support of thousands of folks just like you.
We won in court last week — and the judge gave us some very clear, very honest, language for our petition gathering, which will start in the next few days.
Be a Seed for Change 
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