“It’s the economy, stupid.”

Ever since that famous saying from 1992, I’ve been a student of political campaign language. It fascinates me that elections boil down to just a few words.

Yesterday, here in Seattle citizens voted down Proposition 1, a joint package developed by the Regional Transportation Investment District that, if passed, would’ve raised $17.8 billion in taxes to build bridge, light rail and transit projects up and down the Puget Sound corridor.

I’m not surprised this failed. It desperately needed to pass, and I won’t go in to my feelings about Seattle traffic or the lack of vision most constituents display in solving, and ponying up, for long-term transportation issues. It’s going to hurt and everybody will pay eventually.

Alas, I believe the reason this proposition failed is flaccid word choices. The marketing campaign for the proposition came down to this:

Roads & Transit. Move on.

How uninspiring is that? Move on? Isn’t that a left-leaning PAC? Is that supposed to motivate me to add $400 to my family’s annual car tab costs or comfortable with upping an already bloated general sales tax to 9.5 cents on the dollar? And 10 cents on the dollar for restaurants? What did the poor restaurants ever do the roads and bridges to deserve this?

Compare “Move on” to the opposition’s consistent stance:

“It costs too much, it does too little and it takes too long.”

Ouch. This prop didn’t stand a chance. The opposition was good. They framed this around money and road rage. “Move on” versus a rally cry that tugs at the core of every voter who is tired of their Ship Canal/Michigan Street/520/405 slog. “You mean, I’m gonna pay to sit is this for the next 25 years of my life?”

The words “regressive tax,” also flew around. Even if you don’t know what that really means, it just sounds painful. And people don’t vote to inflict more pain on themselves.

Plus, the opposition was consistent. They all stuck to the same script, starting at the top when King County Executive Ron Sims came out against the prop. I knew they were in trouble when Sims uttered these 13 words on the 6 o’clock news. The Sierra Club repeated the mantra, and it filtered into letters to the editor.

So until the RTID can craft a compelling zinger to get us to unclench our checkbooks, it’s going to suck to get anywhere in this region on time.