From Window Magazine: All eyes on (this) Washington

[ Editor's note: This story is from the fall 2010 issue of Window Magazine, which will be published in print and online next month. In addition to this piece, stories from past issues currently are available on the website. ]

Award-winning Political Science Professor Todd Donovan has been at Western since 1991, developing an early focus on the “direct democracy” ballot measures that are so familiar to voters up and down the West Coast.

Along with his academic work, Donovan has served as an expert witness in numerous court cases and frequently is quoted by journalists trying to make sense of the political climate.

We recently asked for his take on the initiative campaigns, the rise of money in politics, and why all eyes could be on Washington this election.

On Washington’s busy initiative season – six initiatives are on the ballot this year, the second-most in state history: “This is really all big-money driven, paid petitioners. The same groups that you find being fairly influential in Olympia are using the initiative, rather than outside groups like you might have thought it was originally set up for. But that’s what California’s been like for decades.”

Is that different from the way it was intended? “Well, there’s this myth of a Golden Age when it was all grassroots and everything, and that’s not realistic.

Read the rest of this story on the website for Window magazine.