POLITICS: Initiatives and Recalls
Fund, John H.
POLITICS JOHN H. FUND Initiatives and Recalls UNDITS AND POLITICIANS HAVE been taking their potshots at California's recall election of Governor Gray Davis. "Insanity," says Joe Klein in Time...
...Hiram Johnson, the Progressive governor who in 1910 gave California voters the power of recall, initiative and referendum, said at the time that "the opponents of direct legislation 34 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR OCTOBER 2003 and the recall, however they may phrase their opposition, in reality believe the people cannot be trusted...
...We have earned it and we will get it, "he told the Sacramento Bee, "either through representative politics or back at the ballot box again...
...Just as California's Proposition 13 unleashed what Ronald Reagan called "a prairie fire" of tax revolts across the country after it passed in 1978, don't be surprised if the rest of the country notes what Californians accomplish through direct democracy on October 7 and begins to demand changes of its own...
...Only the one against Governor Davis made the ballot...
...The most clogged ballots were in Arizona, Louisiana and New Mexico, which featured 40 measures, 35 of them sponsored by lawmakers...
...Former New York Governor Mario Cuomo calls it "too much democracy...
...Lawmakers resent the fact that initiatives allow voters to run around them and impose such things as term limits or constitutional limits on taxes and spending...
...Despite the negative reputation of citizen democracy in elite circles, there are some signs of independent thinking even there...
...Historian Kevin Starr, a Democrat who was reappointed state librarian by Governor Davis, said that at first he viewed the recall as something that would cheapen the state's civic culture...
...In Massachusetts, legislators prefer to pretend the initiative doesn't exist...
...But state lawmakers and courts are working overtime to raise the bar, leaving even fewer such opportunities in the 24 states that have the right of initiative...
...John H. Fund is a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal...
...OCTOBER 2003 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR 35 In Florida, Al Gore's friends on the state supreme court throw out most initiatives by claiming they violate the state's singlesubject rule...
...The late economist Mancur Olson argued that the downfall of democracy would be its tendency to calcify into special interest gridlock...
...Together with like-minded judges, in recent years they have launched a veritable war on the initiative...
...This public gridlock is in contrast to the private economy where "people are getting information on a 24/7 basis...
...It empowers citizens to enact laws when politicians ignore their concerns or when powerful interests have too much control over government...
...Few Californians dislike the recall process and government by initiative more than Leon Panetta, the former Democratic congressman and White House chief of staff under Bill Clinton...
...There were fewer citizen attempts at lawmaking on the ballot last year than at any time since 1986...
...He called the current structure of state government "a self-perpetuating system, in both Republican and Democratic circles...
...The right of citizens to take their grievances to the ballot box is one way to prevent that from happening...
...Insanity," says Joe Klein in Time magazine...
...In Florida, Al Gore's friends on the state Supreme Court throw out most initiatives by claiming they violate the state's single-subject rule...
...That's exactly the kind of safety valve that Hiram Johnson and his allies intended...
...JOHN H FUND tions last year calling for a ballot measure against same-sex marriage...
...Columnist George Will urges a no vote, saying the whole process reeks of "cynicism...
...But now he regrets what he calls an "attack of Harvard snobbery" and says he views the recall as a legitimate citizen's movement reacting to a complete disconnect between the voters and the governing, class...
...Consulting the voters seems to be fine when it's for the issues and priorities that legislators raise...
...We are past the point of no return...
...A term-limits measure last year failed to collect enough signatures because the officials voided signatures from people who hadn't voted recently, even though they were registered and eligible to vote...
...California has seen 31 attempts to recall a governor in the last 90 years...
...But the category leader of anti-initiative states is self-consciously "progressive" Oregon...
...Nationwide, only about a third of citizen initiatives are approved...
...Thomas Jefferson, who strongly favored the referendum process, called it an important safety valve for a republic...
...In fact, voters have shown great restraint in the kind of initiatives and recalls they have approved...
...Some 130,000 voters signed petiCalifornia has seen 31 attempts to recall a governor in the last 90 years...
...Liberals sponsored a successful measure that banned paying petition gatherers by the signature—a move that will give a leg up to unions, with their convenient supply of volunteer labor...
...They're used to things being changed...
...The truth is that elites have always been suspicious of the right of citizens to recall officials, to pass laws through the initiative process or to force referendums that challenge the actions of a legislature...
...They're used to feedback...
...The legislature, which is required to vote on initiatives before they reach the ballot, promptly adjourned without a vote, thereby keeping the measure off the ballot...
...At the same time, state legislators increased the number of measures they put directly on the ballot to 147, up 10 percent from 2000...
...S TARR BELIEVES THAT California's recall effort taps into a public desire for structural reforms such as a cap on spending and taxes and curbs on special interests that the state's politicians are ignoring...
...His view was that if people were intelligent enough to elect their representatives, they were intelligent enough to decide when those officials had failed at their job and should be removed...
...Only the one against Governor Davis made the ballot...
...T HIS ASSAULT COMES, ironically, at a time when the number of citizen initiatives declined to just 49 last year, down 30 percent from 2000...
...But even he told the Wall Street Journal that "the fundamental structural problems of California are sogreat and the politics so grid-locked that [the next governor] may be forced to a ballot initiative to resolve these issues...
...Everything moves very rapidly, and people want that from their government as well...
...when the people wish to do it themselves they're running amok...
Vol. 36 • October 2003 • No. 5
