BISC presents...BallotBlog!

Oregon 2008: Discriminatory Referendum

From the Oregonian:
A coalition, formed to oppose two recently passed gay-rights laws, took action Wednesday to refer the laws to voters in fall 2008.

The new political action committee -- called Defense of Marriage and Family, AGAIN! -- filed referendum papers with the secretary of state...

Jack Brown of Grants Pass, chairman of the Constitution Party, said he and two other petitioners will withdraw the referendum papers they filed Monday and join the coalition's efforts.

The coalition has a better chance of collecting the 55,179 signatures needed to refer each law, Brown said. The group, which must gather the signatures within 90 days after the Legislature adjourns, has a list of 129,000 households that supported Measure 36, Shannon said. 

The coalition is challenging Senate Bill 2, which bans discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, work and public places, such as restaurants, and House Bill 2007, which creates legal domestic partnerships, giving state benefits of marriage to same-sex couples. Gov. Ted Kulongoski signed the landmark bills into law last week.

If the coalition collects the required signatures, the effective date of the laws will be postponed from Jan. 1, 2008, until Oregonians vote on them in the Nov. 4, 2008, general election.

Oregon: Another Initiative "Pays" Off

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?

Oregon: Dignity

At the end of a long legal battle that started with a ballot initiative, the Supreme Court today ruled 6-3 that the federal government has no right to override Oregon's assisted suicide law. The dissenters were the three conservatives on the court - Roberts, Scalia, and Thomas. Conservatives, you may recall, usually advocate for state's rights. Except, of course, when they don't.