Paul Queary

Last month we brought you news of some right-leaning millionaires putting up cash for a campaign to repeal the state’s new income tax on its highest earners. Since then, conservative initiative machine Let’s Go Washington has turned in more than 500,000 signatures to do just that. Enter the deep pockets on the left. Three progressive-leaning unions have pledged $3 million to defend the tax at the ballot this fall.

When things go wrong in government, especially in public infrastructure projects, elected officials often try to save face with tight smiles and platitudes worthy of a halftime speech when a team is getting its butt kicked. So a King County Council1meeting last month on a potential boondoggle brewing on a mega-construction project at Harborview Medical Center was refreshing.

A heavyweight list of political donors on the right poured more than $1 million into Let’s Go Washington’s bid to repeal the state’s new income tax on its wealthiest citizens via ballot initiative. The conservative initiative machine had thus far gotten most of its 2026 money from founder Brian Heywood, but he’s got help now.