Letter from the Editor: Midterms Make October More Frightening Than Usual

I sat down last week to start pulling together our General Voters’ Guide, casually scrolling through the names and initiatives that will greet you on your ballot. By the time I closed my laptop, I felt genuinely unsettled because of what's on the ballot — and what isn't.

I've been following money in politics for a long time. It usually leaves me a little queasy. This year, it's something closer to a stomach drop.

We’ll start with Brian Heywood and Let's Go Washington. Heywood, a hedge fund manager, founded that PAC in 2022. The name is a wink at "Let's Go Brandon" — an explicit jab at former President Biden. Since then, he's spent millions financing initiatives to overturn laws passed by Washington's Democratic legislature. This year, his group qualified the three measures on the November ballot: IP26-645, IL26-001 and IL26-638.

All three leave out crucial information and underlying goals. What will accompany them on the ballot is something called a Public Investment Impact Disclosure (PIID) — a required plain-language note about what services a measure would defund. Heywood and Let's Go Washington have spent two years fighting PIIDs.

A 2022 transparency law requires a PIID whenever a measure affects state revenue, and it must name the affected services. For I-645, which would repeal the millionaires tax, the Attorney General's Office wrote: 

"This measure would decrease funding for public K-12 education, higher education (including universities and community colleges) and human services (primarily healthcare)."

Let's Go Washington challenged that. On Aug. 7, 2026, Thurston County Superior Court upheld the PIID, ruling it "ensures voters are aware of trade-offs. There's nothing unconstitutional about giving voters more information."

This isn't Heywood's first attempt. Two years ago, he and the state Republican Party challenged the PIID law itself. That failed in Thurston County Superior Court and again on appeal to the state Supreme Court. Three PIIDs appeared on the 2024 ballot for initiatives 2109, 2117 and 2124 — all from Let's Go Washington, all rejected by voters, each losing by double digits.

Read that again. When voters actually got the fiscal context, they said no. 

Then there's Steve Gordon.

Gordon co-founded Project 42 and Future 42, a political action committee, and has donated more than $1.1 million this cycle. His top recipient is Let's Go Washington, at $902,000. He's also given to Dave Larson, a candidate for the state Supreme Court.

Gordon has turned his attention to the Supreme Court race. To his credit, he's doing something most people don't: Supreme Court judges matter enormously, and most voters couldn't name a single one. His group, Full Court Press, wants voters to know who the candidates are before they leave that box blank. They are also training judges to run for the Supreme Court. 

Fine. But notice the pattern. A major donor funding initiative campaigns is also funding efforts to reshape the Supreme Court — the same court that just ruled against them on PIIDs. That's not illegal either. It's just worth connecting the dots.

Unfortunately, there are more players funding this race in similar ways, and they are spending heavily to shape what you see and don't see before you vote. The White House is running its own TV channel while locking reporters out (Even Fox News is against this). A multi-millionaire is suing to keep fiscal information off your ballot. Single donors are writing seven-figure checks. And the press is fighting for access in court — because that access is yours, not ours.

Your job, and mine, is to cut through it.

Our Voters’ Guide will be available next week, right around when ballots arrive in your mailbox. Do your part. Read the fine print. Check the links. Fill in every box.

October is supposed to be scary. This year, the ballot is doing the haunting.