ARIZONA: PROP. 105 - THREAT TO DIRECT DEMOCRACY DEFEATED AT BALLOT BOX

A ballot initiative in Arizona that would have severely limited and possibly eliminated the initiative & referendum in that state was soundly defeated at the voting booths on Nov. 4th. The twisted and anti-democratic logic of the inititiative was rejected by an enlightened electorate. A prime example of direct democracy at it's best. - Editor

The Voters of Arizona Defeat Prop 105

November 5, 2008
Source: http://thevotersofaz.com/?p=127

Arizona’s Voters Reject Prop 105; the So-called ‘Majority Rules’ Amendment
Coalition of more than 125 Organizations Credits Revealing the Truth
and Hard Work as Reason for Defeating Misleading Proposition

The latest ballot count shows that voters have rejected Prop 105 marking a significant victory for Arizonans, all of whom will retain their most precious right – the right to vote. The tally shows Prop 105, the so-called “Majority Rules” amendment, losing by a 66 to 34 percent margin.

“I am proud to have been a part of a coalition that stood up for the voting rights of all Arizonans,” said John Wright, chair The Voters of Arizona-No on prop 105 campaign committee. “It is just plain wrong to count people who don’t vote, and the voters of Arizona agreed that Prop 105 was a misleading initiative that should not be included in the constitution.”

If Prop 105 had passed, more than 80 percent of those voting on a ballot initiative would have had to vote yes for it to pass, effectively killing the initiative process in Arizona, which is the closest thing we have to a direct democracy. If Prop 105 were already in place, a number of initiatives that overwhelmingly passed—including the statewide smoking ban, First Things First, Smarter Growth, almost every initiative since 1974—would not have passed under Prop 105.

A coalition of nearly 125 organizations across the state provided the foundation for a strong grassroots effort. The entire campaign included website development; earned media efforts; statewide direct mail and signage; and creative development, production, and placement of the TV commercial. The campaign took nothing to chance in what was arguably the most deceptive ballot initiative in the state’s history.

“From a campaign strategy perspective, their initiative was a classic ‘bait and switch’ strategy, using a ‘majority rules’ message as a cover,” said Joe Yuhas, partner with RIESTER, the campaigns consultant. “We didn’t allow a misleading message to stand in the way of educating voters about what Prop 105 was really about, counting people who don’t actually vote as automatic no votes. This landslide of Arizonans voting No on prop 105 proves that they want to keep and protect their constitutional right to the initiative process.”

Support for the Voters of Arizona-No on Prop 105 was wide spread including prominent elected officials including Mayors Bob Walkup of Tucson, Karen Fann of Chino Valley, and Mark Nexsem of Lake Havasu City. The business community also joined via support from 10 Chambers of Commerce statewide as well as the Associated General Contractors Arizona Chapter. The Voters of Arizona received a variety of new endorsements weekly, including public safety organizations such as the Professional Firefighters of Arizona, United Phoenix Firefighters and Arizona Conference of Police and Sheriffs; education advocacy groups including Arizona Education Association and Arizona School Boards Association; senior groups including the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans; and the medical community including Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association and the American Lung Association. By the end of the campaign, all major news outlets that weighed in on the issue were against Prop 105 including The Arizona Republic, East Valley Tribune, Tucson Citizen, Tucson Weekly, and The Yuma Sun.

ARIZONA: BIG MONEY, NOT CITIZENS, IS DRIVING INITIATIVES

Again, another article illustrating how in Arizona, as in many states where intitative & referendum occurs at the state level, reform is needed to allow more grassroots access to the process and prevent direct democracy from being hijacked by and limited to special and corporate interests with the funds to push initiatives through. - Editor


Big money, not citizens, is driving initiatives

by Matthew Benson - Jul. 30, 2008 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic

Source: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/07/30/20080730initiatives0730.html

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.

Grass-roots? Nope. Not yet anyway.

Take the transportation campaign in favor of a 1 cent-per-dollar hike in the state sales tax.

Of the nearly $1 million received by the ballot effort, just $100 has thus far been donated by individuals. Campaign-finance reports filed with the Secretary of State's Office show that the vast majority of contributions have come from businesses with a financial stake in roadwork and other transportation projects: construction companies, contractors and engineering firms.

Likewise, nearly every cent of the $8.7 million dumped into a ballot effort benefiting the payday-loan industry has been donated by - guess who? - a trade group representing payday lenders: the Arizona Community Financial Services Association.

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.

Voting via pocketbook

Some past initiative campaigns have demonstrated better success at gathering money from a broad base of donors.

In 2004, the Protect Arizona Now campaign reported that individuals accounted for more than one-fifth of its $550,000 campaign haul.

The initiative, approved as Proposition 200, set restrictions on government benefits for undocumented immigrants and established regulations for identification at the polls.

Two years later, an initiative to ban gay marriage in Arizona garnered thousands of individual donors. Despite raising more than $1 million, Protect Marriage Arizona was rejected at the polls. Supporters have returned to the ballot this year but chose to save their money and energy by opting instead for it to be referred to the ballot by the Legislature.

Although no guarantee of success, small-dollar donations are important when it comes to measuring a campaign's base of support, said Pat Graham, campaign chairman this year for the latest effort to reform the state's trust-land system.

Said Graham, "Somebody who feels strongly enough to vote with their pocketbook is going to get out and carry the message for you."

What if your campaign is short on cash?

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."

Measuring support

Luckily for supporters of Graham's trust-land reform initiative, that campaign has a handful of big-dollar donors.

The Our Land, Our Schools campaign has garnered more than $820,000 in donations so far this cycle, most of which have come from the Nature Conservancy and a development firm owned by Democratic benefactor and former state-party boss Jim Pederson. Individuals have contributed $50,250, all but $250 of which was given by John W. Graham, chairman of the board for the state chapter of the Nature Conservancy.

Campaign Chairman Pat Graham said he expects small-donor contributions to pick up once the initiative is certified for the ballot.

"People don't want to give money to gather signatures," the Nature Conservancy's John Graham said. "The broader base of fundraising is going to pick up now through the rest of the campaign."

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.

The key, he said, is using the money in a fashion that educates voters about the proposal.

The initiative includes consumer-interest reforms, such as a cap on annual interest rates that branches can charge, and eliminates a planned 2010 sunset date. That change would allow the industry to continue in the state.

Barnes noted that campaign donations aren't the only measure of public support. There are the petition signatures, for one. The payday-lending campaign gathered about 265,000 from across Arizona, he said.

And there's another, most important measure of support. It will come on the first Tuesday in November.

THE VOTERS OF ARIZONA: DEFENDING DIRECT DEMOCRACY

'The Voters of Arizona' is a committee organized to oppose proposition 105 which will roll back initiative & referendum and direct democracy in Arizona. The organization seeks to defend Arizona's direct democractic institutions. Read the following press release and visit their website for more information. CLICK HERE: http://thevotersofaz.com/ - Editor

Press Release: Newspapers Endorse No on Prop 105

October 9, 2008

Source: http://thevotersofaz.com/

Four out of four newspapers statewide agree: Vote NO on Prop 105

Unanimously, newspapers statewide agree that come this Election Day voters should vote NO on Prop 105. The Arizona Republic, East Valley Tribune, Yuma Sun, and Tucson Weekly have all come to the conclusion that Prop 105 is a misleading measure that should not be passed by Arizona voters.

If passed, Prop 105 will amend our constitution and require a majority of all people registered to vote to vote YES in order to pass any future initiatives in Arizona, taking away a fundamental right of our citizens, the right to a fair election process.

If Prop 105 passes, 80 percent of those voting on a ballot initiative would need to vote yes for it to pass. Under these rules no initiative since 1974 that was passed by voters and enacted in to law would have passed—including the statewide smoking ban in 2006. Prop 105 effectively kills the initiative process in Arizona, which is the closest thing we have to a direct democracy.

Prop 105 is misleading and encourages voter apathy, and would make elections unfair. It would amend the Arizona Constitution to, in essence, automatically cast a no vote for those who don’t bother to vote, for those who have moved, or for those who are recently deceased.

About The Voters of Arizona

The Voters of Arizona is a political campaign committee composed of individuals and organizations. Visit www.thevotersofaz.com for more information.

No on Prop 105 has been endorsed by newspapers statewide including The Arizona Republic, East Valley Tribune, Yuma Sun, and Tucson Weekly.

Paid for by The Voters of Arizona – No On Prop 105. Major funding by Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, Professional Fire Fighters of Arizona, Arizona School Board Association, and the National Education Association (an out-of-state contributor with 34,227 members in Arizona).

ARIZONA: INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM UNDER THREAT?

Prop. 105: Tax relief or end of initiatives?

by Matthew Benson - Sept. 21, 2008 12:00 AM

The Arizona Republic
Source: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2008/09/21/20080921majorityrule0921.html

Proposition 105 is just one sentence. Seventy-one words about Arizona's ballot-initiative process.

But uncertainty abounds within the relatively few words of the seemingly simple initiative. Would it effectively kill all citizens initiatives or just make it more difficult to pass a few dealing with tax increases?

Prop. 105's hazy implications have sparked a war of words between those who see it as a common-sense way to limit tax increases and critics who say it represents no less than an assault on Arizona's initiative process and tradition of direct democracy. The claims and counter-claims flying on both sides could hardly be more charged leading up to the Nov. 4 general election.


Essentially, Prop. 105 would amend the Arizona Constitution by specifying that a simple majority vote at the polls would no longer be sufficient for any future citizens initiative to raise taxes and fees or mandate government or other spending. Such measures would require approval by a majority of all registered voters, including those not participating in the election at all.

Arizona Education Association President John Wright said Prop. 105 "initiates an attack on the very act of voting."

Leading Prop. 105 backer Jason LeVecke said opponents' real fear is the loss of a ballot process often used to skirt a tax-averse Arizona Legislature. Without initiative reform, he warned, it's only a matter of time before special interests come to voters with a proposal to increase taxes.

"We will be bankrupt if we continue to tax and spend," said LeVecke, who owns a series of Carl's Jr. and Pizza Patron fast-food franchises. "This is a dangerous scenario for the future of Arizona."


Majority rules

Also known as the Majority Rule - Let the People Decide Act, Prop. 105 would redefine what constitutes victory at the polls. That much is clear.

If approved by voters, the measure would require that any future initiative that "raises a tax, fee or other revenue, or mandates a spending obligation" receive for passage the approval of not just a majority of ballots cast but a majority of all registered voters. Non-voters essentially would be counted as "no" votes under this scenario, significantly raising the bar for victory.

Roughly one in three registered voters sits out Election Day in Arizona. Since 1978, voter turnout has exceeded 70 percent five times and reached 80 percent just once.

Even in a year with exceptional voter turnout, say 75 percent, an initiative affected by Prop. 105 would have to claim support from 68 percent of the ballots cast to be approved. If turnout were lower, which is more typical, the percentage of votes needed for approval could climb to 80 or higher.

For evidence, look no further than 2006. That year, Arizona voters agreed to hike the state's tobacco tax and devote the revenue to early-childhood health and other programs.

The measure, Prop. 203, passed with a margin of victory of nearly 6.5 percentage points, a cushion of more than 95,000 votes cast statewide. But it would have come up nearly 500,000 votes short had it been proposed under the stricter rules envisioned by Prop. 105.

"The initiative process is dead if this goes through," said John Spears, a Mesa Republican and retiree who told The Arizona Republic he sees initiatives as "a very strong check and balance against our Legislature - Republicans and Democrats."

But LeVecke is mindful of the impact that even an innocuous-sounding citizens initiative can have on private business. He argues that tax increases should have to pass a higher threshold at the polls - similar to the supermajority, two-thirds vote they must receive for passage at the Arizona Legislature.

"We must right this course and be certain these special interests don't hijack our state," LeVecke said.

Mystery surrounds much of the rest of Prop. 105.


'Ambiguous' language

Opponents wonder whether the measure would apply not only to statewide initiatives but also to local citizen-led initiatives.

The No on Prop. 105 Committee, led by Wright, of the Arizona Education Association, has been stoking those fears, while LeVecke and his representatives insist they have no interest in regulating local initiatives.

The nonpartisan Arizona Legislative Council, a research wing of the Legislature, has issued a preliminary opinion that Prop. 105 applies only to statewide initiatives, though Executive Director Mike Braun concedes that its ballot language "is ambiguous."

A second major dispute centers on how broadly Prop. 105 would be interpreted. Supporters say it would do just what it says: hold to a higher standard of voter approval any initiative that would raise taxes or fees or mandate state spending. Ballot measures that require state funding for a specified program are blamed by critics for tying legislators' hands even as the state faces growing budget shortfalls.

Over the past decade, Arizona voters have approved a handful of initiatives increasing taxes or mandating spending, including three measures in 2006. Kevin McCarthy sees Prop. 105 as a means to help slow that tide.

"Our Constitution never contemplated this level of citizen initiatives with regard to public finance," said McCarthy, executive director of the Arizona Tax Research Association, which has endorsed Prop. 105. "Does it mean (Prop. 105) would stop all initiatives? I can't fathom it would do that."

Opponents aren't so sure.

They note that nearly every initiative has a state cost associated with its implementation, especially those that require resources for enforcement. Would Prop. 105 apply to an initiative toughening regulations against illegal immigration? Or banning the use of cellular phones behind the wheel?

While Prop. 105 supporters call the issue little more than a red herring employed by opponents to scare voters, the question remains in dispute. Braun said the Legislative Council hasn't researched it and likely won't unless Prop. 105 is approved in November.

Most likely, he said, the full extent of the initiative won't be known until there are lawsuits that throw the issue into the courts.

Said Braun: "Really, it'll come down to what five live (Arizona) Supreme Court justices decide." And that won't come until after the election.

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Editors note: We received the following insightful comment from an Arizona citizen in response to this post:

Goldwater has left a new comment on your post "ARIZONA: INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM UNDER THREAT?":

Prop 105 is simple--it counts people who don't vote and that is just wrong. Vote No on 105. Join the campaign against this unAmerican proposal by going to http://thevotersofaz.com/