This afternoon, City Council approved sending the Honest Elections Seattle Initiative 122 (a package to limit the  influence of money on local politics) to Seattle voters on the upcoming November ballot.

The initiative would create a voucher system in which every Seattle voter gets $100 in literal paper “democracy vouchers,” (funded by a 10 year $30 million dollar property tax levy) that can be used to donate to local candidates for mayor, city council seats, or city attorney (district council candidates would have to obtain 150 separate donations to be eligible for voucher dollars). The initiative would also reduce the current $700 campaign contribution limit  to $500, and reduce spending limits ($800,000 for mayoral candidates in total for both general and primary elections, $150,000 in total for district city council seats, $300,000 for at large seats, and $150,000 for city attorney candidates). It would also ban candidates from taking contributions from anyone who has been paid more than $250,000 through a city contract or has spent more than $5,000 lobbying the city, and forbid former high level city staff (e.g a mayor, city council member, department head) from becoming paid lobbyists for three years after vacating their position, along with tighter rules on campaign finance reporting (for more detail, here’s the full language of I-122).

The initiative was approved by an 8-1 vote, with newcomer John Okamoto setting himself apart as the sole dissident. “I do support fair elections, I do recognize that corporate interests dominate our elections,” said Okamoto. “[But] asking taxpayers to contribute three million to somehow find ways to even out the playing field...that is my heartburn and why I will be voting no on this resolution,” he said.

Council members Kshama Sawant, Nick Licata, and Mike O’Brien spoke in favor of the bill, decrying the skewed advantage of well financed special interests in American democracy, while Sally Bagshaw, incumbent running for re-election in District Seven (Queen Anne, Downtown), noted her concerns with the initiative and some suggestions to alter it, such as doubling the number of required donations to a council candidate to eligible for vouchers and maintaining current campaign contribution limits.

“I’m just suggesting that people don’t underestimate how hard it is to raise money,” Bagshaw said (she ended up voting yes despite her qualms).

Honest Elections Seattle—the group that fielded the initiative—is thrilled, of course, as were the numerous members of the council  audience today who spoke in favor of I-122.

But there’s already opposition. Within an hour of the council’s  I-122 vote, a “No Election Vouchers” campaign sent out a media release condemning the initiative. “Voters should oppose this cockamamie of ‘democracy vouchers’ scheme,” Sandeep Kaushik (a campaign consultant), was quoted saying in the release, adding that the measure “encourages corruption and abuse” because “large special interest groups [can] bundle vouchers from members and then direct large contributions to their preferred candidates.”

Kaushik says that the initiative only budgets for a limited amount of vouchers (the levy raises $3 million annually) on a "first come first serve basis", meaning that some voters couldn't donate to their candidates if they give out their vouchers late. “There are 415,000 registered voters in the city of Seattle. The idea is to give $100 in vouchers to every single registered voter. Do the math. That's $41.5 million in vouchers that are going to get handed out to voters,” Kaushik told PubliCola. "The people that got their vouchers in first [get to spend public money on spend on candidates] ... everybody else is out of luck. That is not a situation that is conducive to building trust and faith in our electoral system," he said.

Update: Heather Weiner, an organizer with Honest Elections Seattle, responded to Kaushik's claims. "Only 1.5% of Seattle adults made any level of financial contribution to local candidates in the 2013 cycle, which was a particularly hot cycle with the Mayor's race," said Weiner. "[The] Honest Elections program will exponentially increase voters' participation in the Seattle election process by giving them an easy, simple way to contribute to their favorite local candidates. Worried your favorite candidate will reach her spending cap before you contribute? Then send in your vouchers early."

She added that bundling—where an individual or organization unaffiliated with a given candidate collects campaign donations (in this case vouchers) on their behalf—is prevented by state law, and would apply to vouchers.

In other news from today’s full council, mayor Ed Murray’s medical marijuana reforms passed unanimously without a hitch (we reported on the nitty-gritty details of the legislation in Fizz ; basically it's a scheme to fold medical marijuana dispensaries into the new recreational marijuana market. 

Licata, one of the main proponents of the legislation, said: “Today’s unanimous vote in favor of new cannabis legislation provides a path for dispensaries to play by the same set of rules anywhere in our City limits. Today’s vote provides the clarity for cannabis dispensaries to do business in Seattle, and preserves access for patients who rely on medicinal products, as well as people who use recreationally.”