Big money beigng spent in state's initiative campaigns

Numerous ballot measures competing for voters' attention in Washington state have led to a record amount of combined money spent on campaigns ranging from liquor privatization to imposing an income tax on the state's highest earners.

One upside to the increase in money, said Western Washington University political science professor Todd Donovan, is the increase in voter exposure to those arguments both for and against measures.

"People are probably more likely to cast a vote," he said. "When there's more spending you get more attention. Although there's always negative ads, there's probably, in some ways, more information available to voters than in the past."