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Multi-State: A Right-Wing Initiative Primer

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.

Multi-State: Initiatives Galore

With only a few weeks left for initiative campaigners to campaign their hearts out, there are a series of good news stories out there for the benefit of initiative Trekkies like ourselves.

The San Jose Mercury News (reg. required) compares Arnold's redistricting measure to the one on the ballot in Ohio, and finds that the California language is missing one big word that matters.

Seattle's Anthony Robinson poses a question, and an answer, for Washingtonians: "Why is a thumbs-down on I-912 the right thing to do, and why do we know that? One word: 'Katrina.'"

California's paycheck deception measure gets the national treatment, from Senators on both sides of the aisle.

National Politics: Populists and Progressives

Guest post by pollster Brad Bannon, of Bannon Communications Research.

The victory of initiatives in Florida and Nevada in 2004 to raise the minimum wage is a strong indication of the success that Progressives can have in 2006 pushing a populist economic agenda.

Thomas Frank argued convincingly in his bestselling book, What’s the Matter with Kansas, that Democrats have lost the support of blue collar voters because the party that has compromised its positions on economic issues so much that it is difficult for working class voters to tell the difference between the two parties on key bread-and-butter issues. According to Frank, the lack of difference between the parties on economic issues has led blue collar voters to support Republicans because of their comfort with the GOP’s positions on social issues like gay marriage. 

 The 2004 Election Day exit poll supports Frank’s thesis. Voters in middle income households ($30,000-$50,000) split right down the middle between Bush and Kerry. The Democratic Party and the Progressive Movement need to do a lot better with these financially squeezed voters. These barely middle class voters were not rich enough to benefit from the Bush tax cuts and their financial situations have grown worse in the last year and a half.

Despite the conservative spin that President Bush is not getting enough credit for improving the economy, the marketplace is a mess and the time is right for Progressives to build on the good work they started with the successful minimum wage initiatives that they won in 2004. The August 5^th edition of the Wall Street Journal was an eye opener. Political reporter, John Harwood wrote that despite rosy economic projections “wage increases lag behind despite low unemployment, and high gas prices dampen consumer spirits”. On the same day that Harwood’s article appeared in the WSJ, the paper ran this headline which reflected consumer unease: “U.S. retail Sales Wilt in July.” And finally the bible of corporate America reported that Exxon/Mobil had churned out “a record profit of $25.3 billion last year as oil prices soared.”

National Politics: And You Thought We Were Sunk

The Center for Policy Alternatives has just released their report Progress in the States: A Report on Proactive, Progressive Victories in 2005, and lo and behold, it turns out to be much more than a sheaf of blank pages!

In all seriousness, the report details 144 measures passed by state legislatures that help advance core progressive values: civil rights, economic justice, environmental protection, access to discount drugs, and others. Not only that, but many of the new laws have been passed in deep red states, like Kansas, South Carolina, Kansas, North Dakota, Texas and Utah. Yes, even Utah.

The steady whinging and moaning of DC-based progressives is not without some merit. Tough times abound for us in the nation's capital. But out in the nation's capitals, the progressive train keeps rumbling forward. Top-level Dems, pundits, and especially the Right, take notice: the country is not quite as conservative as you think it is.

Multi-State: 2005 Initiative Preview

2005 is an off-year for many politicians and advocacy groups, but it's shaping up to be a big season for ballot initiatives. The measures that have qualified for the November ballot in the five states that allow initiatives in off-years are listed here. Many of these have already become contentious political battles, and there is much on the ballot that progressives should fight tooth and nail, especially Arnold Schwarzenegger's anti-worker initiative in California, Ohio's TABOR-esque TEL Amendment, and another round of anti-gay discrimination in Maine. On the proactive side, Colorado will put a five-year timeout from their own version of TABOR in front of voters this fall because of its disastrous effect on their state budget, while Health Access has introduced a prescription drug initiative in California that puts Big Pharma's parallel drug measure to shame.