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Efforts to convince Washington state voters to reject three initiatives on the ballot this fall are in full swing.

Initiative 2117 would repeal the state’s Climate Commitment Act, Initiative 2109 would repeal the state’s capital gains tax and Initiative 2124 would allow Washingtonians to opt out of the state’s mandatory long-term care benefit program.

There are individual campaigns against each measure – No on 2117, No on 2109, and No on 2124 – and a fourth campaign called Defend Washington that attacks all three.

Defend Washington spokesperson Sandeep Kaushik says the organization’s recent polling shows voters are likely to reject all three initiatives.

“Whether it’s funding to protect our air and water, or funding for schools and early learning, or long-term care for workers and seniors, that’s the sort of thing people don’t want to see happen in Washington state,” he told The Center Square.

A poll conducted April 11-14 involved phone and web interviews. Defend Washington reports that the sample for the poll “came from a voter file” of 600 likely Washington voters, with 30% of their sample identified as conservative, 27% as liberal and 38% as moderate. 

Poll results show below 50% support for all three measures, with more voters opposed than in favor.

Less than a quarter of voters indicated that they were “definitely” going to vote in favor of each initiative.

“Even if people may have an initial inclination to think they are favorable to these, they see the major cuts that they would enact are a huge impediment,” Kaushik said.

Asked about the hundreds of thousands of voters who signed petitions to qualify the initiatives for the ballot, Kaushik noted, “Just because hundreds of thousands of voters signed petitions, it does not mean they are actually popular.”

He went on to say, “I mean if you spend money on paid signature gatherers, you can get signatures. Brian Heywood has spent millions of dollars of his own money to get these initiatives on the ballot. I would not take that as indicative of where the electorate is in Washington more broadly.”

Heywood is a hedge fund executive who bankrolled the ballot initiatives via voter advocacy group Let’s Go Washington.

Earlier this week, Heywood told The Center Square that internal polling shows all three measures are likely to pass.

Heywood pointed out that the number of people who opted out of WA Cares, the state’s mandatory long-term care plan, by purchasing their own plan before the deadline to do so is an indication of the plan’s unpopularity.

“Five hundred thousand people in Washington got out, and then the state said, 'Everybody else, you’re stuck in it forever, and you can’t get out,'” he said. “Part of our messaging is to say that’s patently unfair.” 

That figure doesn’t include the people who signed the petition in favor of I-2124.

“You have 420,000 people who signed our initiative saying I want out, too," Heywood observed.

“They can try and defend the thing, and say this replaces long-term care, but it absolutely does not,” he said. “It’s got two or maybe three months of support and then you’re done. So someone who thinks they may need long-term care and now they think I’ve got this state plan that covers it, they’re going to be in for this rude awakening.”

Kaushik says despite the promising Defend Washington poll results, nothing is being taken for granted.

"We think these measures are really destructive and will have negative impacts on Washington state, and we’re building a broad and growing coalition of opposition against these initiatives," he said.

Hallie Balch, spokesperson for Let’s Go Washington, disagreed.

“The opposition can deny the truth all they want, but the reality is that over 800,000 people signed onto these initiatives, and 57% of them were Democrats and independents,” she said.” The reason there’s such broad support is that people are tired of paying for programs that aren’t working. We’re pro-environment, we’re pro-education, and we’re pro-long-term care for seniors – but these programs haven’t done any of those things, yet we’re still paying for them. That’s insane.”

Last month, Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee announced a $50 million electric vehicle rebate program through the state Department of Commerce to be implemented later this year and early next year allowing qualifying residents to get subsidies for leasing or purchasing an EV.

The EV rebate program is part of a larger effort to electrify the transportation sector in the state in preparation for a 2030 gasoline vehicle sale and registration ban, all of which is intended to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The $50 million program is expected to subsidize the lease of 1,750 to 3,500 EVs and the sale of 3,400 to 7,000. The program would have the buyer immediately receive a discount upon purchase, while the EV dealer would be reimbursed by a contractor, who would then be reimbursed by the Department of Commerce.

At a Thursday meeting of the Washington State Transportation Commission, Transportation Electrification Policy Lead Steven Hershkowitz told the commission “this program in and of itself is not going to move the needle significantly on climate emissions. But, this is the way for the state to push forward in accessibility and access to the program while still reducing emissions to some extent.”

According to Commerce, the program is estimated to reduce carbon emissions by between 18,800-24,000 metric tons. That makes up 0.06% of the total emissions emitted by the transportation sector as of 2019, which is the most recent data available through the state Department of Ecology. According to Ecology, the transportation sector that generated emitted 40.3 million metric tons of carbon. 

If applied to the 2019 statewide total emissions of 102.1 million, the EV rebate program would reduce emissions by 0.02%.

In an email to The Center Square, Communications Manager Caroline Halter wrote that Ecology publishes the statewide greenhouse gas inventory every two years, with the next one to be published by the end of this year and include data up to 2021. She noted that “Over time, we will start to see the effects of the CCA and other climate policies show up in this dataset.”

She also noted that the agency relies on federal data for its inventory, but expects that to change after 2024 as they rely more on state-based data.

Jesse Lee Calhoun, identified last year as a person of interest in a series of suspicious deaths of women in Oregon, has been indicted in three of the killings as detectives continue to investigate two other mysterious deaths, authorities said Friday.

The announcement capped more than a year of fear and speculation about the possibility of a serial killer preying on women in and around the Portland metro area as police discovered the bodies of women left in remote areas over a three-month span.

Acknowledging the agonizing wait for charges to be filed, Multnomah County Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell thanked the public for its patience and recognized the grief of the families of the women who went missing.

“Their deaths have caused fear and anxiety across our area,” Morrisey O’Donnell said at a joint news conference with the district attorney, Portland police chief and detectives and prosecutors handling the case. “And for the families who have been waiting for answers, we want our community to know that all of us in public safety have been working tirelessly to achieve this result.”

A Multnomah County grand jury on Thursday returned a six-count indictment against Calhoun, 39, charging him with three counts each of second-degree murder and second-degree abuse of a corpse in the deaths of Charity Lynn Perry, 24, Bridget Leanne Webster, 31, and JoAnna Speaks, 32.

Police and prosecutors said they continue to investigate the deaths of two other women — Ashley Real, 22, and Kristin Smith, also 22, and that Calhoun may face additional charges.

Police and prosecutors didn’t answer questions about how their investigation linked Calhoun to the crimes or how he knew the women. Calhoun’s ex-girlfriend previously claimed the prolific car thief had been having sex and selling fentanyl to at least one of the women he’s now charged with killing. The ex-girlfriend described seeing a video on Calhoun’s cellphone that showed Webster without a shirt and a needle in her hand while in a car, saying she had just “quit shooting up.”

Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt said he met with the women’s families earlier in the morning. He noted “the deep pain and the grief” they’ve shouldered the past year.

“This community holds you in our hearts and is here to support you,” he said. “There’s still more work to be done. Investigations are ongoing.”

County sheriff’s detectives worked with Portland police detectives, Clackamas County sheriff’s deputies, other law enforcement agencies and investigators in the district attorney’s office on the case.

Family and friends of the women attended the news conference, wearing shirts bearing photos of their loved ones. They’ve clamored for answers in the women’s deaths.

CoLene Vargas, the mother of JoAnna Speaks, described her past year as “hell.” She said she has questions still and didn’t get many of them answered during the news conference. She said she just feels “empty.”

Calhoun’s name first came to light after The Oregonian/OregonLive began reporting on the string of dead women, which authorities initially denied were connected. But county prosecutors said last summer that they had identified a “person of interest” in some of the deaths, without naming him. Sources familiar with the investigation identified Calhoun as that man.

Police and prosecutors said repeatedly that the investigation was complex and that they devoted considerable time and resources to it.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Melissa Marrero dismissed suggestions that the indictment was in any way an attempt to influence Tuesday’s election for district attorney. Incumbent Schmidt faces one of his prosecutors, Senior Deputy District Attorney Nathan Vasquez, in a divisive race.

Marrero said police and prosecutors last year scheduled a grand jury to hear the case in May, aware that Calhoun was set to be released from prison next month.

“We knew that we would need to move forward by that time,” she said.

“The election had nothing to do with why we chose to do it at the time we did or the speed at which the investigation went forward,” she said. “The collection and development of the evidence is what controlled that completely.”

Calhoun is being held at the Snake River Correctional Institute in Ontario, where he’s been serving the second half of a four-year sentence in a burglary and car theft case dating back to 2019. His punishment was cut short in 2021, when then-Gov. Kate Brown commuted his and 40 other prisoners’ sentences as thanks for serving as volunteer firefighters. Brown made expansive use of her pardon powers, freeing more than 1,000 people during her administration.

Calhoun’s early release was conditional — and subject to revocation if he violated his release terms. Yet it’s unclear how closely authorities monitored Calhoun. While a county spokesperson said Calhoun reported to his probation officer as required, Real, who later died, told Portland police he attacked and strangled her in November 2022. The alleged attack was never referred to the district attorney’s office for prosecution, and Calhoun hasn’t been charged in Real’s death.

It wasn’t until July 3, 2023, that Schmidt requested Gov. Tina Kotek rescind Calhoun’s commutation, citing unspecified criminal conduct. The governor revoked his early release later that day.

A Clackamas County SWAT team caught up with Calhoun during a traffic stop on July 6 at a Milwaukie gas station, according to Calhoun’s ex-girlfriend, Krista Sinor. Calhoun jumped into the Willamette River to evade capture, according to Sinor and police, but eventually returned to shore and was arrested.

He’s been held in near isolation in prison ever since and will remain behind bars once he is transferred to the Multnomah County Detention Center to face charges here, prosecutors said.

Portland Police Chief Bob Day said that while the announcement of the indictment was gratifying, it remained “a very somber day” for the families who have lost their loved ones.

“Although we cannot bring them back, we will do our very best to find justice and resolution in this process,” Day said.

The women named in the indictment were in vulnerable circumstances as they struggled to survive on the streets or while grappling with the effects of addiction, their families previously told The Oregonian/OregonLive.

Speaks was found dead of blunt force trauma to the head and neck April 8, 2023, in a derelict barn east of the Interstate 5 interchange in Ridgefield, about 20 miles into Washington state. Homicide detectives believe she was killed in Portland and was later moved across state lines.

Perry, who suffered from schizophrenia and was last seen alive near a notorious open-air drug market in downtown Portland, was found April 24, 2023, in a culvert near Ainsworth State Park. Her mother, Diane Allen, previously told the The Oregonian/OregonLive her daughter’s body had likely been left in the drainage ditch for two weeks before being discovered.

Webster’s body was found next, on April 30, 2023, on Harmony Road near Mill Creek in northwest Polk County, though she was known to frequent the Portland area and last lived in Clackamas County.

Authorities haven’t released a cause of death for either Perry or Webster.

Perry’s mother, Diana Allen, and Melissa Smith, whose daughter Kristin Smith’s death remains unsolved, stood to speak at the news conference. Kristin Smith, of Gresham, was reported missing on Dec. 22, 2022, and her body was found in a wooded area in Southeast Portland’s Pleasant Valley neighborhood in Feb. 19, 2023.

Allen said not having answers has been very frustrating but she praised the detectives’ dedication to the investigation.

“Just because not all of these girls have charges that have been brought up yet, that does not mean we’re not still standing beside them. We’re still together,” Allen said.

Melissa Smith said she has hope a resolution will come in the future for her family and the family of Ashley Real. Real disappeared from Southeast Portland on March 27, 2023, and was found dead in a heavily wooded area in the Eagle Creek area on May 7, 2023.

“We’ve done a lot of investigating all year,” Melissa Smith said. “We just keep going. We keep waiting. We keep praying. ... We stay hopeful that we soon can get justice for them as well.”

The mothers wore matching shirts that bore photos of their daughters. The back of the shirts read, “We demand justice.”

Last year, the specter of a suspected serial killer given a second chance by state leaders unleashed fierce criticism and finger-pointing among law enforcement leaders. Schmidt previously said he was given only a week to review the 14 commutations, including Calhoun’s, that were submitted by the governor’s office.

A spokesperson for Schmidt said he ended up not having time to review the commutation request, though prosecutors in Washington Clackamas and Marion counties did object to the majority of Brown’s proposed commutations. Regardless, Brown signed off on Calhoun’s early release in July 2021 — about a year before his sentence on burglary, stolen car and assaulting a public safety officer convictions was up.

The first of the missing women was found dead about 18 months later.

©2024 Advance Local Media LLC. Visit oregonlive.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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