The Movement for Tenant Rights Grows Stronger Every Day

By Ty Moore

This past week was both exciting and enraging. With just 12 days left until the November 7th deadline to mail-in ballots, the opposition PACs dark money campaign of lies is pushing us into an intense fight to win Citizens Initiative #1 for 100,000 Tacoma renters. 

The opposition’s strategy is clear: Knowing they can’t convince most voters through honest democratic debate, corporate landlords are resorting to a Trump-style disinformation campaign to sow confusion and fear. While dangerous, their weak and underhanded strategy underscores the moral and political strength of our cause. I’ll outline our answers to the main opposition lies below, but first let me update you on what’s happened over the last 10 days. 

On the positive side, Tacoma for All is moving from strength to strength:

• We’ve won some positive media, my op-ed in the Tacoma News Tribune and this Fox 13 clip, both calling out the outside dark money campaign of lies against Initiative #1.

• New endorsements came in from State Senator T’wina Nobles, alongside AFSCME State Council 28 and SEIU 775 and , who together represent nearly 100,000 workers statewide.

• Our union allies sent out a pro-Initiative #1 mailer to 3,400 members in Tacoma, and UFCW 367 is working hard to turn out the 1,800 Tacoma grocery workers in their union.

• Our fundraiser with State Senator Yasmin Trudeau and multiple labor leaders brought together 100 supporters and raised over $14,000 – donate here if you missed it to help us meet our $15k goal!

• With those funds, we’ve hired three new part-time staff to help with our final Get Out the Vote effort, bringing our total team of part-time staffers to eight!

• Our volunteers have knocked nearly 20,000 doors since signature-gathering began, and are now following up with over 2,000 supporters to make sure they vote. Sign-up here if you can canvass or phonebank!

• Our representatives did amazing in a public debate with the Rental Housing Association that drew over 100.

There is also some ominous news. The $365,000 campaign of lies and disinformation from the opposition PAC is making an impact. Among the voters we can reach, our canvassers are reporting success at dispelling negative myths about Initiative #1. But there are still tens of thousands of voters we have yet to talk with. This is what we’re up against:

• The opposition’s $365,000 is paying for 4 rounds of deceptive mailers, 3 mass text campaigns, and over $150,000 in TV and other media buys. 

• Over 90% of this $365,000 is from donors living outside of Tacoma, and more than half is from national business interests.

• For months, these big outside donors illegally hid their campaign preparations from voters, only reporting most of their donations on October 16th in clear violation of campaign finance laws.

• Hundreds of our yard signs are being stolen or destroyed all across Tacoma. One of our volunteers filmed a man putting up the opposition lawn signs while stealing ours.

The best answer to the dishonest and undemocratic approach of our opposition is to get out and talk to voters in these final weeks. We have great news to deliver about the growing strength of our movement for tenant rights, and about the promise of Initiative #1 to expand housing stability for 100,000 Tacoma tenants.

Their resort to lies shows our strength. Let’s unite together and turn out our friends, co-workers, and neighbors to vote by 8pm on November 7th.