Camden: ’19 mentions both honorable, not

A Gold Star for the best decision of 2019 goes to the Washington Supreme Court justices who gave the public an early Christmas present with their Dec. 20 ruling that legislators are subject to the state’s Public Records Act, just like other elected officials in cities and counties across Washington. Legislators are early favorites for a Madoff Medal in 2020 if the trial court levies high costs and fees for not following the law. Those would go on top of the $350,000 of taxpayers’ money they spent for private lawyers in their attempt to play defense.

The Mr. Yuck Award, for the legislative action most likely to make you queasy, goes to the new law against eyeball tattoos, which the Legislature banned. The practice is unhealthy and dangerous as well as just plain icky, but even supporters couldn’t produce an instance of it ever happening in the state. Comes with a coupon for a free lunch, in case thinking about poking and dyeing your eye makes you lose the lunch you just had.

A Red Badge of Courage to legislators who agreed to end the personal exemption parents could claim to keep their children from being vaccinated for measles, mumps and rubella. Yes it is a half-measure, because personal exemptions still exist for some other vaccinations. But lawmakers who voted “yes” still had to buck pressure from vocal constituents, including one person who drove around the Capitol Campus for hours at a time, blaring loud music through speakers to attract attention to anti-vax signs and other screeds that popped up through the sunroof.

The Super Chicken Citation, named for the person who most personifies the “He’s everywhere! He’s everywhere!” tagline from the cartoon character, to initiative hawker turned gubernatorial candidate Tim Eyman. In the closing weeks of the year, he seemed to have a made-for-media event about every other day about Initiative 976, which allowed him to mention his 2020 campaign. Because Eyman shows a fondness for T-shirts with slogans, the back of this citation will feature a warning to pin on his shirts that reads, “Danger: Don’t get between me and a television camera.”

The Jubilation T Cornpone Award, named for the character in Li’l Abner cartoons famous for strategies that snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, to the supporters of affirmative action. They managed to push it through the Legislature in the 11th hour. But opponents quickly gathered enough signatures to put it before voters, who rejected affirmative action by a margin of 21,557 votes.

Cornpone Award Honorable Mention goes to the Keep Washington Rolling campaign, which spent $5 million and had endorsements from business, labor, local government officials, state leaders — and still managed to fail in their effort to beat Initiative 976.