July 30, 2008

It’s Time for Campaign Finance Reform… for State Ballot Initiatives

It’s no different in California — and it’s wrong:

Big money driving Ariz. ballot initiatives

So much for the “citizens” with this year’s batch of citizens initiatives.

For most of the nine initiatives planned for the November ballot, financial backing from individual donors has been scarce. The money has flowed almost exclusively from corporations, political committees and a relative handful of wealthy individuals. …

Initiative representatives counter that the disparity in campaign donations among business interests, political committees and regular Arizonans is nothing new.

But the divide is so pronounced this election cycle that it raises the question of whether Arizona’s direct democracy has become little more than a legislative vehicle for wealthy special interests. …

Bonita Burks had hoped to qualify for the ballot new state restrictions on motorists’ use of mobile phones while driving. But despite a series of high-profile accidents that focused public awareness on the issue, her petition drive stalled long before it collected the 153,000 valid signatures it needed. Some of that she attributes to a lack of campaign funding that forced her to rely on volunteer, rather than paid, signature gatherers.

“It made it difficult,” said Burks, whose Safer Road Arizona campaign reported just $1,050 in total donations. “Although it is a very important issue and I’m very passionate about it, we just didn’t have the dollars to make it happen this year.”

Even with a throng of volunteer signature gatherers, border-security activist Don Goldwater, too, failed to make the ballot with either of his immigration proposals.

“In the history of the state of Arizona, no citizens initiative has ever been done without paid signature gatherers,” Goldwater said. “If you’ve got the bucks, you can get the initiative on the ballot.” …

Stan Barnes isn’t too worried about where the money comes from for his Payday Loan Reform Act. The key is that it’s there. And it’s big.

“We’re not even trying to collect money from Arizonans who are not connected in some way to the payday-lending industry,” said Barnes, a lobbyist representing the campaign. …

I know money is power in this country, but that’s not the way it’s supposed to be. Currently in the midst of untangling the vast web of connections among the big-money donors — most of whom are out-of-state special interest groups with deep pockets — behind Proposition 8, California’s anti-marriage initiative, it’s clear to me that as soon as we win this battle, we need to work on stricter regulations regarding ballot initiatives in the initiative-crazy Golden State: who can donate, and how much — as well as additional reporting from 501c(3) organizations which take full advantage of their non-profit status to escape scrutiny.

We also need to make the names of all petition signers public — not for any nefarious means, such as harrassment, but to guard against fraud. It was only after KnowThyNeighbor.org published, online, the names on the 2005 anti-gay marriage petition in Massachusetts did some “signers” learn that they were victims of fraud.*

How many of the million-plus “signers” to the Proposition 8 petition were tricked into thinking they were signing an entirely different petition? How many signatures were forged? We’ll never know, as long as the State of California does not release this information to the public.

Finally, we need to put an end to what can only be called frivolous ballot measures. Did you know that Californians are being forced to vote on the same “parental notification” issue for the third time in two years — after sending the previous two propositions to resounding defeat?

As Proposition 8 itself goes, it will go down in flames — but you can bet that it will resurface in a new form every election cycle, for as long as the Radical Right has the money to keep putting it back on the ballot.

Voter initiatives in California have become a joke — and are in no way voter initiatives; as in Arizona, our “direct democracy” has indeed become nothing more than “a legislative vehicle for wealthy special interests.”

* Just a few examples of Massachusetts voters surprised — and outraged — to find their names on the anti-marriage petition:

Petition signer was misled
Last week my son told me that he’d just seen a list of those who’d signed the anti-gay marriage petition … I was surprised that my name was on the list. My daughter and her girlfriend, of 22 years, married in June of 2004. My family is 100 percent pro gay marriage. … The Web site states that thousands of signers may have been duped into signing, as I was. …

Residents charge petition fraud
Beverly resident Leslie Leathersich never signs petitions as a matter of personal principle, so imagine her surprise when a friend asked why she had signed a petition to change the state Constitution and ban same-sex marriage. … Leathersich joins five other Beverly residents who have filed affidavits saying their signatures were obtained fraudulently on the petition to change the state Constitution and ban same-sex marriage. …

Official denies signing petition
NORTHAMPTON - After a fruitless attempt to locate a petition that supposedly bears his signature supporting a ballot question to bar gay marriage, At-Large City Councilor James M. Dostal said yesterday he will concentrate his efforts on having his name removed from that list. …

Posted by: Sapphocrat

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