WA Voters: Why did the anti-ergonomics rule pass?

http://vote.wa.gov/results/measures_sum.tpl

I can't stand it. For a state that has already been cheated and burned by Tim Eyman initiatives, why is every freaking initiative approved by the state? Are voters that dumb? Or desperate? Or just scared?

Background: I-841 bans state ergonomic regulations - that have been in place for a while and that have nothing to do with whether employers come to the state. However, the businesses in favor of the ban named their committee "Citizens Against Jobkilling Laws" or something like that. They plastered television screens with images of poor jobless workers that would have had jobs, except for evil government bastards.

screw this misbegotten excuse for a country and going off to Canada, or someplace else where they actually care for their citizens.

This country is spiraling down the toilet faster and faster...

big bidness didn't want it...and they spun a better doomsaying tale.

Not only were they vague, but they were rediculous.

With that kind of attitude toward the voters, and using that rational for dem losses will garuantee many more years of republican control of our public life.

The information you provide here doesn't do much for your own credibility. To quote, " ...state ergonomic regulations - that have been in place for a while and that have nothing to do with whether employers come to the state.

The truth is the laws were written in 2000, but all enforcement was delayed until 2005, specifically so that businesses could make the nessecary changes before enforcement began. It was in reading through those laws, and trying to adapt to them, that led almost all small business owners, myself included, to vote against it.

Your own sloppiness in the details is very indicative of how progressives run campaigns. I'll give you an example from the Seattle PI's article reporting the loss.

Initiative opponents, mostly labor unions who champion the ergonomics rules as commonsense worker protection, had hoped for a late surge in King County and other union strongholds in Western Washington.

The opponents blamed the defeat on the BIAW's financial advantage, as well as the relatively small amount of attention the initiative drew.

"An incredible number of people didn't even know there was an election," said Karen Keiser, a state senator and spokeswoman for the Washington State Labor Council.

Keiser accused the I-841 campaign of misinformation and distortion about the rules' potential impact on jobs.

"It was an outright lie and it was never debunked," said Keiser, D-Des Moines.

It seems to me that an intelligent progressive, instead of critisizing the voters, would be asking the following questions:

-How come the labor unions allowed the BIAW to outspend them that heavily?

-Sen Keiser, how come that lie was never debunked? Where the hell were you during the campaign?

-Where was the Dems & the unions GOTV effort?

You can't win elections against determined opponents with such sloppy, lackadasical campaigns. And it's childish to place the blame on "dumb, desperate, & scared" voters for your own failings.

I'm a small business owner in the construction business, and that law would have devastated our industry, and almost certainly put me out of business. The state requires me to have a bond, and insurance, before they'll give me a contractor's license. The insurance companies that specialize in contractors insurance were threatening to pack up and depart the state. The ones that remained would have stayed to service their big clients, and would not be taking new clients, and the rates, for those who could have gotten insurance, would have been prohibitive. There was nobody at the state who could tell me what I was supposed to do when this happened. The state was not going to sell me insurance, neither were they going to drop the requirement that I have the insurance.

So smart guy, why don't you tell this "dumb, desperate, scared" voter what I was supposed to do?