Initiative & Referendum
Art imitates life. That emblematic movie, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, echoes in Michigan as I speak.
Jefferson Smith, played by Jimmy Stewart, is the boy scout leader appointed to the U.S. Senate because this political kingpin thought Smith would be easy to hoodwink. But Mr. Smith finds corruption, and he filibusters against the entire senate to end it.Accused by one old-timer of blocking a needed relief bill, our hero retorts, “The people of my state need permanent relief from crooked men riding their backs.”
The media establishment condemns Smith, and when Smith’s scouts work to get their message out through homemade newspapers, thugs physically block, intimidate, and attack the lads.
In Michigan, similar nastiness has been directed against the campaign to recall Speaker of the House Andy Dillon. Dillon staffers have flocked into the district to intimidate those petitioning to recall their boss.
One such blocker, hired by the Michigan Democratic Party to “educate” voters, is an eight-time felon whose rap sheet includes armed robbery. The police got involved . . . making robo-calls to residents claiming the recall backers were “extremists” engaged in an “illegal” effort.
The Detroit News piled on, arguing that the recall, precipitated by Dillon’s big tax hike, will cost Michigan taxpayers even more dough because it requires a special election. Except that it won’t. The regularly scheduled August primary will piggy-back the recall vote — which will happen, since last week more than enough signatures were turned in.
In the movie, the good guy wins. The same may be true in Michigan.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Every year Tim Eyman in Washington state comes up with some new initiative to limit taxes or make government more accountable.
So of course politicians and media people are furious with him.
For years he’s been a member of the Republican Party. But not long ago he joined his county’s Democratic Party. And was surprised to find himself welcomed, at home.
He admits he shouldn’t have been surprised. Sure, his tax limitation measures really vex politicians. But they don’t bother most Democrats. Indeed, one savvy Democrat explained it all to him on his first night in the party. The man said he had never known a Democrat who wanted his taxes to be higher just “so we can waste them on an ineffective government program.”
Only politicians, bureaucrats, and some crazed leftists want that.
The rest of humanity knows that you have to be careful with your money. Even in government. Imagine that!
As Eyman summarized his conversations with his fellow Democrats, “person after person, story after story, suggestion after suggestion . . . it was the same kind of stuff I’ve heard from supporters for years.”
Now, of course not everyone agrees with Eyman. One woman shook his hand, laughing, saying she opposed every initiative he’s ever done, and every one he would do in the future.
But the real truth of the matter is that limiting government is a bipartisan — no, omni-partisan — issue.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Beware of enemies of property rights bearing pallid imitations of the real thing.
Californians face an alternative on the upcoming June ballot: protect their private property, or expose it to the continued attack of politicians and private entities seeking easy ill-gotten gain.
Proposition 98 is the real thing. It would outlaw taking private property for private use. It defines “just compensation” in detail so that persons who lose property to a public use have a better chance of being fairly compensated. It would enable the original owner of a property to buy it back if it was grabbed under false pretenses. And Prop 98 also phases out rent control.
All this is spelled out in California’s official ballot summary. But opponents complained about the official title — “Government Acquisition, Regulation of Private Property” — saying it doesn’t mention the ban on rent control. Which is, however, clearly stated in the summary. In any case, the courts have rebuffed this attempt to undermine the measure.
Opponents prefer Proposition 99, a much more limited measure. It states that eminent domain may not be abused to steal an “owner-occupied residence.” So Prop 99 basically sanctions the state’s grabbing of small businesses — or any property for any purpose at all if you happen not to live there.
Sorry, 99. But you’re not the right choice for real advocates of property rights.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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A Daily Oklahoman editorial laments the killing of a bill that would have created a task force to study the state’s initiative process, writing, “The initiative petition process in Oklahoma is in need of a fix.”
That’s why Representative Randy Terrill sponsored the bill. Which passed the House 86 yays to only 11 nays. But in the Senate, evenly divided between the parties, the Democrats stopped it.
As Norma Sapp, head of Oklahomans for Initiative Rights said, “This bill would simply allow legislators to find out the facts . . . and to discuss possible solutions. How can anyone be against having more information?”
Does seem a bit odd, no?
The editorial suggested, “That the bill got shelved is evidence the status quo on this issue suits some policy-makers just fine.”
Turns out, as a Democratic senator admitted, it was Attorney General Drew Edmondson who furiously lobbied behind-the-scenes against the task force.
Yes, this is the same Drew Edmondson who is persecuting the Oklahoma Three — that is, Yours Truly and two colleagues — seeking to imprison us for ten years for working on a petition drive. There’s more on our case at FreePaulJacob.com.
Edmondson also refuses to investigate instances of real petition fraud that have been brought to his office. Why? Well, it could be that the facts would hurt his case in a court challenge against Oklahoma’s petition law.
If you oppose answers, you don’t want any questions.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Have you ever read the Asbury Park Press? It’s a New Jersey paper.
A recent Press editorial advocates statewide initiative and referendum, currently enjoyed by only 24 states . . . none of which is New Jersey. The editorial notes that I&R has been often introduced in the state legislature only to die on the vine.
The paper says citizen initiative would “give citizens disenfranchised by political bosses, gerrymandered voting districts, uncompetitive elections and unresponsive public officials a direct say in state policy.” And that voters must demand this right if they wish to escape politics-as-usual in New Jersey.
The Asbury Park Press recently also carried a review of a book called The Soprano State, by Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure. The concluding chapter is entitled “The Soviet Socialist Republic of New Jersey.” Ouch!
According to the reviewer, the authors report in vivid and inescapably depressing detail how “self-serving pols and their greedy cronies raid state and local treasuries and gang-rape the New Jersey taxpayer.” No, tell us what you really think!
They count 1,969 separate government entities in New Jersey with the power to levy taxes. Plenty of opportunity for overloaded payrolls, inflated contracts, no-show jobs for cronies, spiraling debt, and on and on.
How to trim leviathan? Aggressively pursue initiative and referendum.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Do citizen initiative rights give voters or give special interests “too much” power to pass bad laws?
Sure, bad initiatives sometimes pass. But as Eric Dixon points out at the Show-Me Institute blog, our intermittently esteemed representatives do not religiously avoid passing bad bills. Lawmakers enact lousy laws galore.
Dixon argues that the track record of citizen initiative is actually pretty good. “For every misguided minimum wage increase and tax hike that voters pass,” he writes, “there are dozens of initiatives that have cut taxes, slashed spending, passed term limits . . .” He also says that ballot initiatives make elected officials much more accountable than would otherwise be the case.
Exactly, Mr. Dixon.
There even seems to be a kind of multiplier effect. More good has come from California’s Proposition 13 than bad has come from all the bad initiatives passed in all the states over the past century. After all, it sparked a tax revolt nationwide.
We enjoy disproportionate benefits from initiative rights because the good things that come from them are nearly impossible to get from legislatures. Meanwhile, the bad things typically expand the power of politicians — so, politicians are inclined to enact them anyway.
Besides, it’s easier for special interests to persuade or bribe a handful of politicians than influence a majority of voters. So, to block and reverse the bad stuff, the citizen initiative sure comes in handy.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Is politics a “blood sport”? It’s not supposed to be. But Detroit’s Channel 4 reports that folks called “blockers” are harassing voters who want to sign a petition.
The petition is to recall Michigan’s Speaker of the House Andy Dillon over his massive tax increase. People are hurting in Michigan. But legislators — led by Dillon — decided taxpayers should hurt more, so that spending could grow more than three-quarters of a billion dollars.
At The New Media Journal, Warner Todd Huston writes that “blockers scream at petition signers, calling them names, and hover menacingly over them making them feel threatened and intimidated.” Rose Bogaert of the Wayne County Taxpayers Association says, “They’re literally behaving like thugs out there.”
Who are these brutes? It turns out many of them are on the state payroll. In fact, they work for none other than Speaker Dillon.
Dillon’s office claims the blockers on his staff are doing this all on their own, taking vacation time. Yeah, right. Maybe now that they’ve been caught.
Leon Drolet, the head of the Michigan Taxpayers Alliance, isn’t buying that. Instead, he’s offering $250 a pop to identify each of these thugs.
Dillon’s tax increase was a travesty. The use of state workers to violate citizens’ most basic constitutional rights is, well, serious enough that you ought to find out more at MichiganRecalls.com.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Do you believe that exercising our democratic rights should be as tough as the Twelve Labors of Hercules? Even Hercules had trouble with those, capturing a hound from Hades and so forth.
No, it shouldn’t be such a chore. But in state after state, power brokers whine that it’s way too easy for voters to consider an initiative that legislators dislike.
Sure, there should be safeguards against electoral fraud. But this isn’t what politicians in, say, Michigan fret about.
According to one new proposal, by Michigan Senator Michelle McManus, a certain number of petition signatures should be collected in each of 83 out of 110 House districts.
The point of this formula? Only to force petition supporters to spend resources unproductively. There’s nothing “democratic” about the burden. Does election to some statewide office, like governor, require votes to be apportioned among districts according to such a formula?
Of course not.
Another notion is that constitutional amendments are so important that only the Michigan legislature should be allowed to place them on the ballot. This would presumably ensure that such amendments are properly “vetted.” Otherwise, “special interests” might have too much influence.
Wrong again. Initiatives are vetted by voters in the campaign before the election. The whole point of citizen initiative rights is to end-run “vetting” by biting and snarling politicians.
Sometimes I think Hercules had it easy.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Are you like me? Are you interested in the right of direct democracy, of initiative and referendum? Do you wish we had some nifty collaborative way to aggregate fast-changing facts about citizen initiatives and other ballot issues?
No sooner do I wave my magic wand than somebody else has done the hard work of setting up Ballotpedia, a project of Citizens in Charge Foundation. Stick a ".org" on the end of it and you’ve got the url for the site, ballotpedia.org. You can also click into it from the Citizens in Charge home page.
If you know about Wikipedia, you can guess that Ballotpedia is a Web resource with a similar format. The difference? Ballotpedia specializes: It’s everything about ballot measures, voter rights, citizen initiative rights, litigation about these, the ballot rules of different states, etc. Anyone with relevant information is free to add a new entry or expand a current one.
Ballotpedia has the familiar pluses and minuses of this freewheeling format. Somebody might get a fact wrong. But the open editorial process acts as a corrective.
Why do we need Ballotpedia? We’ve talked about the recent attempt in California, through Prop 93, to pull the wool over voters’ eyes and weaken term limits. Ballotpedia was one place where voters could get accurate and honest information.
So check out Ballotpedia, friend of you and me(dia)! (Hey, just be glad I don’t start a punpedia.)
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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You can’t answer every random fallacy uttered by fierce foes of facts and logic.
Can’t always ignore them either. Like, when your polemical adversary is trying to jail you for ten years. I refer to Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson, who indicted me and two others for abetting democracy in Oklahoma.
Before our recent arraignment, I attended a news conference at which a number of concerned citizens, legislators and leaders of taxpayer and voter groups spoke out against this politically motivated travesty. I noted that we, the Oklahoma 3, acted in good faith to follow Oklahoma’s regulation requiring petition circulators to be state residents. Even though the regulation has been challenged in court as a violation of the First Amendment.
But Mr. Edmondson told reporters, “This is not a First Amendment issue.” Then, admitting the opposite was true, he added, “If the courts determine that the state’s process violates the First Amendment, so be it.”
First, he pretends to be oblivious to the First Amendment issue. Then, he acts as if he can do whatever he pleases, Constitution or not, unless a court steps in to stop him.
As someone observed at FreePaulJacob.com, Edmondson’s cavalier disregard for the Constitution, the very highest law, doesn’t square with his own official responsibilities. It’s just not consistent with his oath of office.
He’s sworn to uphold the Oklahoma constitution and the U.S. Constitution. Not prosecute those of us who take both very seriously.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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Seems every November in Washington state, Tim Eyman of the aptly named Voters Want More Choices has an initiative on the ballot that’s dramatically outspent by the powerful interests who dominate the state’s legislature.
And yet his initiative still wins.
In recent years, each January, as the legislature convenes, here come bills to “reform” the initiative process. Reform meaning kill.
This year’s bills seek to force citizens collecting petitions to register with the government and be licensed. Forget the fact that requiring a license to use one’s First Amendment rights is about as American as Joseph Stalin.
One bill makes sponsors of initiatives liable for any mistakes made by those petitioning. Better to scare away the citizen leaders. Mostly, the goal is to invalidate perfectly valid voter signatures on some technicality committed by the person circulating the measure.
The excuse for these bills, we’re told, is to fight fraud. But Washington’s Secretary of State, in response to a public records request, disclosed they “have no instances of verified forgeries or fraud in the signature gathering process for initiatives in those years (1999 through 2006).” That’s over eight million signatures with zero instances of fraud.
The real reason? The politicians and special interests that live off of our hard work won’t come out and say it, of course, but they figure that if they can’t win a vote of the people, then they’ll find a way to stop the people from voting at all.
That’s just wrong. It’s a fraud.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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