UPDATED: Ballot initiatives look for place on GOP platform

SPOKANE - The Washington State Republican Party convention does more than just give its candidates a platform to speak and select presidential delegates to the national convention, it is also a time for party activists to speak their mind and participate in the process of defining the party.

But that latter group is made up of more than just party faithful. Here in Spokane, backers of ballot initiatives are looking to make their wares part of the Republican Party fabric.

Tim Eyman, who himself is running for national delegate as a citizen, says that his Initiative 985, which seeks to reduce congestion by opening HOV lanes to all drivers during non-rush hours, prioritizing clearing auto accidents and synchronizing traffic lights, is already there. UPDATED: I-985 is not part of the platform. The debate will continue this afternoon, but as it stands the only specific support is stated for the ballot initiative process in general.

"Somebody already introduced a resolution to have it in our platform, so we don't have to do anything on that front,"Eyman said.

As a result, he was mainly focused on setting up the process to obtain enough signatures to get the measure on the state ballot in November.

"The only thing is signature gathering," Eyman said of his priority for the weekend, "Signature gathering, signature gathering, signature gathering. And getting people to walk out of here not just signing it, but walking out of here with a petition."

Eyman continued to say that the strength of this initiative, compared to some of his past efforts like mandating road spending proportions and capping property tax rates, was that it was created to initiate the suggestions of a professionally created performance audit.

"Unlike our previous initiatives which were our ideas," he said, "in this case we are doing one that is basically Brian Sonntag's idea. These are all recommendations by the auditor and its all funded with taxes we are already paying, so it doesn't raise taxes which is a big silver bullet for us."

Another ballot initiative interest group is seeking the same party recognition isn't a sponsor, but rather a coalition of those seeking to block the passage of one. They are the opponents of I-1000, the so-called Death with Dignity initiative the hopes to legalize physician-assisted suicide for those suffering from terminal illness.

"What we are trying to do here is, part of the coalition against physician assisted suicide, a very broad based coalition is to educate the public they do a double take and ,once the public realize whats involved in the initiateive they think, ‘oh, that's not quite what I was thinking it was,'" said Dr. Patricia O'Halloran, an internal medicine physician who is helping to lead the cause."Once they realize that there is actually no requirement that patients be evaluated by a mental health professional for depression that makes people pause."

She said that someone has proposed to made the opposition of I-1000 part of the official party platform, and that they were spending the weekend boosting their cause otherwise.

"We are trying to educate them about it, get signatures and tell them how they can help to stop it," Dr. O'Halloran added.

She was optimistic that the platform amendment would pass, and was quick to add that she felt it was a wide ranging coalition, not just a conservative one. They plan to be back in Spokane in two weeks for the Democratic Party convention, though she was unsure if they would have a similar platform proposal.

"I expect it to pass," she said. "This is not just a Republican issue. This coalition is very broad based."