In a blog post this month, Philip Dawdy, sponsor of the pot-legalization measure I-1068, blasted labor giant SEIU for its recent decision not to help fund his campaign. Without the SEIU’s money, he lamented, he’d be stuck relying on an all-volunteer squad of signature-gatherers, leaving his bid for a place on the November ballot a long-shot. The initiative process in Washington “is clearly tilted,” he complained, “…in favor of big moneyed interests.” But those big-moneyed interests have also helped his campaign big-time.The SEIU is paying to put signatures on Dawdy’s petition–and so are Costco, the liquor distributors, and other big players in this year’s initiative game. Just not directly.Raupp and Towe, in a photo by Greg Gilbert that ran on the front page of yesterday’s Seattle Times.To see the subsidy in action, you only have to pay a visit to the two guys who were featured on the front page of yesterday’s Seattle Times, Mike Raupp and Chad Towe. They’ve set up tables on Pine St. downtown and covered them with “Legalize” t-shirts, caps, and buttons. They’ll indeed be happy to take your signature for I-1068, but they’re actually professionals. (Towe was even profiled in the New York Times years ago, when itinerant-signature-gatherer-for-hire was a novel career.) The reason they can afford to be here is they’re being paid by SEIU et. al. to fill up all the other petitions on the table. Pot is thrown in as a freebie. As one signature-gatherer explained to me, while working a sparse crowd at Seattle Center a couple weekends ago, he brings the pot petition along, even though he’s not being paid, because it can be a good way to get people to stop–especially younger people, who might not be so interested in the income tax or privatizing workers’ comp. Pot, in other words, is the gateway petition.Towe agrees. With all the media coverage of legalization, “this is the hottest issue in America right now,” he says. “People are aware of the issue and then they come over and we can talk to them about other issues as well.””It makes sense for the paid petitioners to have 1068 with them because it helps them with everything else,” notes Dawdy, a former Seattle Weekly writer. “We’ve helped Costco, Tim Eyman, the BIAW, people trying to overturn the candy tax”–all of whom are pushing initiatives this year. “I think even the anti-immigrant group [Respect Washington! which has I-1056] was using it.”Still, Dawdy says, if he had the money to pay signature-gatherers directly, he’d be home free. “If I’d had $50,000 two weeks ago I could have gotten 100,000 signatures at 50 cents apiece.” The many mundane obstacles to going all-volunteer include the Secretary of State’s requirement that petitions be on 11×17 paper, which makes it impossible for most normal people to print a petition out at home, Dawdy notes. Big-money campaigns can also pay professional services to “scrub” their petitions of bad entries (fake names, unregistered voters, etc) before submitting to the state, which helps to get the initiative certified more easily.Raupp and Towe are true believers in the cause, Dawdy says. But as for all that merch for sale? You might think it’s to fund I-1068. But as Towe readily explains, he and his colleagues use the money to cover their own expenses, like parking. The url on the shirts LegalizeWashington.com is one that Towe bought back last month, but there is nothing yet at the address.(Thanks to Laura Onstot for her writing and reporting contributions to this post.)