Property-rights initiative attracts the most dollars

Property-rights Initiative 933 is attracting more money, pro and con, than any other measure on the state ballot this November.

Altogether, supporters and opponents have donated more than $1.6 million in cash, goods and services to the campaigns for and against the initiative.

The opposition committee, Citizens for Community Protection, has collected slightly more than $1 million, and the pro-933 Property Fairness Coalition about two-thirds as much, according to the state Public Disclosure Commission.

Fourteen Seattle-area environmentalists have contributed more than $480,000 to the opposition campaign, each giving at least $11,000. They include photographer Duncan Haas and entrepreneurs Paul Brainerd and Douglas Walker.

The anti-sprawl group Futurewise has given $142,000 in cash and about $23,000 in in-kind contributions, while The Nature Conservancy has contributed a total of more than $72,000.

Among I-933's supporters, the Washington State Farm Bureau, the initiative's sponsor, has given $50,500 in cash and about $150,000 in in-kind contributions and loaned the campaign another $75,000. The Farm Bureau's county affiliates have contributed another $134,000.

Most of the campaign's remaining money — $200,000 — has come from Americans for Limited Government, an Illinois-based, libertarian-oriented group that is backing property-rights and spending-cap measures in several states this fall.

Campaign-finance reports indicate the pro-933 campaign has already spent most of its money collecting signatures to get the initiative on the ballot and had less than $8,000 in the bank at the end of July.

— Eric Pryne