Howie Rich from New York City is unfamiliar to most voters. But his money may decide how many states conduct business after the Novemeber elections. Click on the images below to see how Howie Rich from New York City is messing with your state. Check back here for a link to a new website launching this month that will keep up with Howie, his cronies, and his shenanigans.
If you're interested in how the Right uses ballot initiatives, how they move money and people to support those initiatives, and how they obscure the effect of those initiatives from the residents of the states they target, you should read this article.
Even if you're not interested in all of those pieces, please read this article.
A hearty Shout Out to the Maine chapter of the AARP, for taking a strong stand against TABOR in the Pine Tree state. If approved by voters in November, the gimmicky statutory ballot initiative will severely cut social programs for seniors, limiting state and local revenue and expenditures to a arbitrary formula of population growth and inflation.
TABOR kicked off the ballot in Missouri.
Updates tomorrow as more information becomes available.
Read Chris Cillizza's profile of the Club for Growth's primary victories.
Excerpt:
May seems to be the Club For Growth's month.
The Washington, D.C.-based political organization, which is dedicated to supporting laissez faire capitalism, has scored a slew of GOP primary victories so far this month. It began in Ohio on May 2 where the group backed state Sen. Jim Jordan in the open 4th District House race and Secretary of State Ken Blackwell in the governor's race.
A week later, state Sen. Adrian Smith -- the Club-endorsed candidate -- won a crowded Republican primary in the western Nebraska 3rd District. On May 16, Club for Growth President Pat Toomey and the club's Pennsylvania chapter helped organize conservatives to vote against GOP state legislators who had approved a pay raise for themselves. Seventeen legislators members wound up losing their primary races, 13 of whom were Republicans.
Then, last night, another Club-backed candidate, state Rep. Bill Sali, won a six-way GOP primary to claim the nomination in Idaho's 1st District.
"The month of May is validating the new model we have developed," said Toomey. "[We] go in early and go in massively when we make an endorsement."
OK, fine. But while much is made of the horserace aspects of the Club for Growth's primary successes (money raised, incumbents removed, etc.), I wonder what the "primary purity" will mean when the Club's candidates hit the general election. Conservatism isn't exactly winning friends and influencing people in 2006. Not only are we seeing the national Republican Party split and crumble under the weight of corruption and deep unpopularity, but the state issues that would seem to be popular with the Club's candidates are suddenly losing steam as well. Grover Norquist's TABOR tax limitation is becoming increasingly toxic (see Blackwell in OH) as voters and legislators learn more about it. Ditto for the right's newer gimmick, the so-called 65% Solution, which purports to put more money in the classroom but which favors football teams over libraries. Six states have said no thanks to 65%. May seems to be the Club's month, alright, but primary purity often means general malaise.
Just a heads up for all of you who like to keep your eye out for nutcases armed with ballot initiatives: South Dakota is facing a measure that would allow judges, jurors, and citizen boards to be sued for their decisions. It's called Amendment E - the Judicial Accountability Initiative Law, or JAIL. If the name of the initiative doesn't clue you into the thinking behind this thing, you can watch the sponsor's testimony in front of the Senate State Affairs Committee. It's a doozie.
Just found this gem: An anti-choice news site called LifeNews reports on the recent opposition of Sen. Jim Talent of Missouri to the ballot initiative that would give scientists the right to stem cell research in his state. The article discusses the sigh of relief among anti-choice activists, who had begun to question Talent's commitment to fighting medical breakthroughs and exerting control over Missouri's uteruses (uteri?).
Ballot Initiative Strategy Center would like to join LifeNews and Missouri's anti-choice activists in applauding Mr. Talent on this tough decision. This initiative is sponsored by the state's reasonable Republicans and will be supported wholeheartedly by progressive voters. By our calculations, Talent's principled stand will be followed by a principled packing up of his Washington residence and a principled return to being a full-time Missourian.
Good on ya, Jim!
To all of those "nattering nabobs of negativism" who have decried statewide efforts to boost the minimum wage, some new numbers just in from Florida should give some pause.
According to a new study by conducted by researchers at the University of Chicago and Florida International University, there is no evidence that raising the state's minimum wage hurts job growth. Despite claims by Rick McAllister of the Florida Retail Federation and other critics that raising the minimum wage by a buck and then indexing it to inflation "could have a billion-dollar inflationary effect on the state," not only did Florida not experience any higher-than-average inflation, the state's unemployment rate actually fell by nearly a full percentage point over the past year. Florida's 3.2 percent unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the country. And despite the increase in the minimum wage, service industries, which depend heavily on low-wage labor, had explosive job-growth, with some 62,100 jobs being added between April 2005 and February 2006.
Voters know that statewide campaigns to boost the minimum wage are morally the right thing to do. There's ample evidence, too, that they're economically the right thing to do.
The Florida Legislature is walking a very thin tightrope with their attempt to convince voters to repeal the popular 2002 class size limit while at the same time instituting the so-called "65% solution," the policy gimmick that would have absolutely no effect on educational quality in the state.
We'll keep track of this, mostly because it's always fascinating to watch a slow-motion train wreck.
UPDATE: Yes, we know it borders on the unthinkable, but a handful of Republicans in the Florida Senate stood up to Governor Jeb Bush and the GOP leadership this week. Kudos to the six GOP Senators and the Democratic caucus who bucked the majority when they voted against a measure aimed at weakening a class-size reduction amendment
passed by the voters in 2002.
Jeb and the GOP leadership had tried to take down class-size by linking it to the deceptive “65% solution,” a policy gimmick that would tie the hands of local school districts. Unlike their Republican compatriots in the House, who have time and again shown utter contempt for the voters of Florida (after all, they’re only their constituents), the moderate GOP Senators handed Jeb a stinging defeat. (For more, see “Senate vote preserves class sizes”)
SO, Our Oregon has been moving an initiative that would rein in the runaway interest rates that payday loan companies foist on borrowers. It was polling like gangbusters. This thing was like, soooo popular! And then something interesting happened. The Oregon legislature convened a special session yesterday to pass legislation nearly identical to the initiative. Not only that, but the sponsor of the bill was the same woman who just last year killed legislation that would have accomplished the same ends. Wha happened?
By itself, this story would point to the power of an initiative to goose legislatures into action on a previously ignored (or opposed) issue that resonates with the people. But in 2006, the phenomenon is happening all over the map. In Michigan last month, the Republican legislature saw that they'd be sharing the ballot with a popular minimum wage initiative. Their track record on helping poor people being roughly equivalent to Republicans everywhere, they realized that this wasn't the kind of sharing they were going to benefit from. So they grabbed a languishing Democratic bill to raise the minimum wage and rammed it through the Michigan Senate and House. Democratic Governor Granholm happily signed it into law. The initiative campaign then closed its doors.
A few weeks after that, the Arkansas legislature did the same thing, except these were Democrats who may have been embarrassed that an initiative was making them look bad. After all, a Democratic legislature that hasn't raised the minimum wage is a pitiful thing indeed. So they passed a raise and the initiative campaign ceased its activities.
Then Massachusetts did it with universal health care. And Mitt Romney signed it (albeit a watered-down version), if you can believe it.
What to make of all this?
Good catch by blogger mcjoan at Daily Kos, who points out that anti-gay marriage group Coloradans for Marriage might want to think of one or two more reasons why traditional marriage is worth "protecting."
I'm sure Coloradans for Marriage will remove the page soon, so here's how it looks as of 3:30 today:
The New York Times wonders whether conservative turnout strategies - specifically the initiative kind - will continue to work in 2006, or whether issues like gay marriage have lost their punch. Definitely worth a read...
Texas Governor Rick Perry passed the so-called "65% solution" by executive order, mandating that all school districts in the state spend 65% of their education funding "in the classroom." It wasn't long before Texans began to wonder what "in the classroom" actually meant. Turns out that it included foot ball teams but not librarians. So the librarians naturally became agitated, as did many parents who believe that books represent a rather crucial aspect of classroom learning.
Perry, sensing that he might have made a slight error by implementing a laughable policy gimmick in its entirety, has now included librarians within the 65% of funding. All is well in Texas schools now, right? But wait, what about those other small pieces of the education budget that are left out of the 65%? You know, like school buses, lunches, nurses, security, guidance counselors, playgrounds, the school building itself?
Perry could fix all the pieces of the "65% solution" that need fixing. But after a time, he might realize that a solution that needs this much work isn't much of a solution at all.
In our post on the Arkansas minimum wage compromise, I mistakenly swung the AR legislature to the Republican side. Commenter DDravot points out that the state leg. is decidedly Democratic, which, as he notes, makes the compromise a bit of a mystery. Why didn't these legislators want to share the ballot with a helpful issue?
We'll research this and get back to you. If you have any insight, feel free to leave it in Comments.
The Arkansas Senate has passed a minimum wage hike as part of an agreement with initiative campaign Give Arkansas A Raise Now. This is the second time in a month that a Republican legislature has reversed themselves and passed a wage raise in order to avoid sharing the November ballot with this popular progressive turnout issue. We'll see what kind of blowback these legislators now get from their own fundraisers. Kind of a no-win situation for conservatives on this issue.
The proposal, part of a deal struck between legislative leaders and an organization pushing to put a similar increase on the Nov. 7 ballot, had gained support of the House Committee on Public Health, Welfare and Labor earlier Tuesday. The full House is expected to consider the measure Wednesday.
The Rev. Stephen Copley, chairman of the group that initiated the proposed constitutional amendment, said he was confident the bill would gain widespread support in both chambers of the Legislature.
"Our goal all along has been to raise the minimum wage and to help workers who need it the most in the state," Copley said after the House committee vote. "This was a big step for us." Supporters of the proposed constitutional amendment, which would raise the wage to $6.15 an hour and require employers to revise the wage with inflation, reached agreement on the bill last month. They plan to pursue their proposal if the Legislature doesn't approve the increase, which would go into effect in October.
Great news for fiscal sanity in the Pine Tree State! TABOR has been kicked off the ballot in Maine:
A Superior Court judge has reversed a decision by Maine's secretary of state to accept petitions promoting a far-reaching package of government spending caps after the expiration of a one-year time limit.
The ruling by Justice Donald Marden, dated April 3 and circulated on Tuesday, would if left to stand block a statewide vote on the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights championed by anti-tax activist Mary Adams of Garland.
Secretary of State Matthew Dunlap and a citizen challenger, veteran political activist Kathleen McGee of Bowdoinham, have been at odds over whether the spending cap initiative should have been green-lighted for voter consideration.
A state lawyer arguing for Dunlap asserts that Dunlap had the discretion to count petition signatures submitted by proponents after what had been regarded as a statutory filing deadline.
But lawyers for McGee, who challenged Dunlap's action, maintain that the secretary of state's acceptance of disputed petitions was illegal.
David Devereaux-Weber of Madison, WI has got his head screwed on straight.
Guest blogger Professor Dan Smith is the pre-eminent authority on campaign financing and special interest activity in the ballot initiative process. He is currently the Scholar in Residence at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center Foundation.
It appears the Republican Party of Florida has decided to come out of the closet. It’s a big step for the party, as it appears that it has officially abandoned all pretenses of being an inclusive, big-tent party.
According to campaign finance reports filed with the Florida Division of Elections, the Republican Party of Florida has contributed $150,000 to Florida4Marriage, the group backing a flailing constitutional ballot initiative attempting to ban gay marriage. The lump sum from the party comprised more than half the $272,000 the anti-gay group raised in 2005.
The President of the Florida Family Policy Council, John Stemberger, who is behind the measure, claims that the donation from the party to his group was unsolicited.
But Stemberger’s group has close ties with the RPoF. Stemberger, an Orlando-based trial lawyer who boasts of his membership in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum, was Political Director of the state party in 1992. And the group has paid more than $5,000 in “consulting fees” to an obscure evangelical bookstore in Orlando, Encouragement Company, owned by author and Republican state party photographer LeAnn Weiss, who has ties to Carole Jean Jordan, the Chairman of the state party. Looks like these “consulting fees” turned out to be a pretty good investment.
The signature gathering practices of the backers of the Michigan anti-affirmative action ballot initiative are now under investigation by the Michigan Department of Civil Rights. Funny how dishonesty has become simply part and parcel of the machinations of Right Wing extremists in all levels of politics.
Well, Happy New Year!
The group trying to put the "Michigan Civil Rights Initiative" on the ballot has hit another legal bump in the road. I wish I could report that the problems they're having stem from the fact that they call their racist measure the "Michigan Civil Rights Initiative," but for some reason that doesn't seem to have affected anyone...not even gastrointestinally! No, instead it has to do with appeals courts and legal maneuvers and boards of cavassers and whatnot.
Meanwhile, I'm going to puke if I read "Michigan Civil Rights Initiative" one more time. Stay tuned for more Orwellian b.s. as this rotting pile of initiative makes its merry way toward the ballot.
The Good
Florida lawyer Bernie Siegel, who became a media sensation when he took a UFO cult group to court to find out if their claim to have cloned a human was true, is now joining with Palm Beach County Commissioner Burt Aronson to get a constitutional amendment on the 2006 ballot in Florida that would permit taxpayer money to be used for stem cell research.
The Bad
The Florida Christian Coalition and Catholic bishops have collected nearly enough signatures to put the wording of an anti-gay marriage amendment in front of the State Supreme Court for review. Like most anti-gay marriage initiatives, this one would make gay marriage super-illegal, since it is already illegal in Florida. Florida ACLU lawyer Larry Spaulding hits the nail on the head, calling the proposed measure an "amendment in search of a problem."
The Ugly
In response to the drive for a non-partisan redistricting initiative planned for 2006, we get this lovely quote from the President's bro:
Gov. Jeb Bush said, ``I've got concerns about people under the guise of nonpartisanship that have a partisan agenda.''
Something tells me those words might not ring quite as hollow if they weren't uttered against the backdrop of Jeb and Katherine's Wild Ride in the 2000 election disenfranchisement debacle.
Yesterday the anti-gay Massachusetts Family Institute filed constitutional amendment language that would ban gay marriage in the only state that currently allows gay men and lesbians to marry. In fact, AFI's ban would overturn both the 2003 Supreme Court decision that legalized gay marriage in Massachusetts, and a "compromise ban" passed by a joint legislative Constitutional Convention that would allow civil unions.
This was a wholly expected filing, but it brings up an interesting political dilemma in the Right's message strategy on this issue. In 2004, the mainstream conservative message hewed closely to a message around "protection of traditional marriage," rebuffing all charges of being discriminatory by indicating that a mechanism that ensured economic benefits for gay partners might be acceptable.
Obviously, we can now see behind their rhetorical smokescreens (as if their true motivations weren't already obvious). By seeking to deny the protections and benefits of civil unions to gay people in Massachusetts, the Religious Right has undermined their own soft-sell strategy and let us in on their dirty not-so-secret: they hate the "sinners" and the "sin."
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