The city-backed campaign to pass a preschool proposal on Seattle's November ballot has announced its first television advertising buy just a day after an opposing, union-backed campaign hit the airwaves with ads of its own.
Organizers for a campaign to pass Proposition 1B — a plan to hike property taxes to pay some low-income students preschool tuition — unveiled two TV spots Tuesday as part of a "six-figure," week-long ad buy. One of the ads features former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice.
Seattle voters will have to choose between the preschool measure and Proposition 1A, a proposal to create a training program for the city's childcare workers and immediately hike their minimum wage to $15 per hour. Voters can support one ballot measure or the other, but not both.
"Clearly, the challenge with this election is you've got two similarly-named measures with similar-sounding ballot language and voters have to choose between the two," said Sandeep Kaushik, a consultant to the pro-Prop. 1B campaign. "Our intent is to provide voters with the information they need to decide between two measures."
The union-backed Prop. 1A has enjoyed a lead in campaign fundraising, garnering nearly $1 million in contributions to date — nearly all of it from the American Federation of Teachers and Service Employees International labor unions. Prop. 1B has raised a little more than $265,000.
"It is likely that we will be outspent in this campaign," Kaushik said. "We have confidence that Seattle voters are smart and will do their homework."
