Rolf Boone reports in The Olympian:
“Proposition 1, Thurston Countys public power initiative, was soundly defeated Tuesday night the no vote capturing 61 percent of the vote, compared with 38 percent for those who supported the initiative.”

“John Pearce, chair of the Thurston public power initiative, the group that successfully collected enough signatures to get the issue on Novembers ballot, said he was proud of the volunteers and what they accomplished and he feels they changed the conversation for the future.

‘It will come,’ Pearce said about public power in Thurston County, ‘its just a matter of time.’

He said that ‘unfortunately, corporations win,’ and that Puget Sound Energy ‘bought the election.’

If the initiative had passed, it would have given the Thurston Public Utility District, a water utility, the authority to pursue public electrical power.

PSE, which currently provides power to the county, took that effort so seriously that it contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Alliance, which spent most of the money on a significant direct-mail no vote campaign.

The Alliance raised more than $600,000, according to updated state Public Disclosure Commission data, more than $400,000 of that total coming from PSE.

The Thurston Public Power Initiative raised about $37,000.”
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Ed. Note:
PSE spent more than 10 to 1 in dollars to defeat this ($400,000 to $37,000) and only had an 11% effective spread in the vote? I hope Pearce is right and this returns to the ballot again soon.

You need proof that PSE “bought the election?”
Look no further than the WA. Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) for evidence:

Click here for PSE’s Cash Contributions for: ALLIANCE TO PROTECT THURSTON POWER = $410,000.

Click here for PSE’s Inkind Contributions for: ALLIANCE TO PROTECT THURSTON POWER = over $175,000.