Orphan Road

Well, last night was certainly disappointing. I have to hand it to the "no" campaign. They were outspent and outgunned and still they won. I was naive to underestimate their ability to corral everyone into a circular firing squad. It was surprisingly effective.

The "yes" folks, meanwhile, were clearly caught flat-footed, as the TNT's Joe Turner notes:

“The No campaign created enough confusion over the cost, and that’s how you win,” said Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, chairman of Sound Transit. “They put us on the defensive and we didn’t recover.”

He said it’s unlikely anything will happen on the regional transportation front before 2009.

“We’ve basically delayed the solution two to four years and driven up the cost by about $25 billion,” Ladenburg said.

The next fight will be the fight for public opinion. As the P-I writes, that's still largely up for debate:

Before doing anything, some want to examine the election results more closely, possibly using surveys to figure out what voters didn't like about the plan: Was it the taxes? The road versus transit squabbling? The specific projects proposed?

As state House Transportation Committee Chairwoman Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, put it, "I don't know what a no-vote tells me."

That fight is now underway. Already Danny Westneat, a light rail proponent, is saying we should give up on big projects like light rail for a while, since the voters don't seem to want to foot the bill. The state may be forced to kick in more money for a new 520 floating bridge, everything else is up in the air.

In the meantime, this is now our official regional transportation policy. Sweet!