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Oregon petition signature gathers get early start for 2008 ballotmeasures
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~News article from The (Portland) Oregonian - August 31, 2007
M ichael Drake was holding a clipboard with petitions for three ballot
measures outside a Southeast Portland DMV office on a hot Wednesday
afternoon when a car pulled up and the driver offered his signature.
"That's a rarity," Drake said, adding that the man had refused a request
to sign the petitions a few minutes earlier.
Drake chalked it up to his polite approach. There's no arguing with
success: He and other signature gatherers for conservative causes say
they have obtained enough signatures to qualify at least four measures
for the 2008 ballot more than a year before the election.
It's the earliest start to an Oregon initiative season in decades -- if
not ever.
The chief players in this drive are veteran anti-tax activist Bill
Sizemore and Kevin Mannix, a Salem attorney and former legislator.
They are sponsoring measures that would impose mandatory prison
sentences for burglars and drug dealers, limit bilingual education in
public schools, cut state taxes and restrict the use of union dues for
political purposes.
Over the past decade, Mannix has run four unsuccessful statewide
campaigns, twice for governor and twice for attorney general, while
Sizemore has watched more than a dozen of his ballot measures fail.
"Neither is beloved by Oregon voters," said pollster Tim Hibbitts.
But that doesn't dissuade them from a comeback in 2008, thanks to
Oregon's initiative process, where ideas and money are more important
than personal popularity.
"Voters in Oregon are quite capable distinguishing between the
individual who sponsors a particular measure whom they may not like to
the merits of the measure," Hibbitts said.
The measures that already appear headed for the November 2008 ballot,
and other conservative-backed initiatives in the pipeline, are certain
to be opposed by liberal groups in the state and to put those groups on
the defensive during a presidential election year.
That is one of Sizemore's primary objectives, say his critics.
"Unfortunately, they win even when they lose with these things by
forcing progressives to spend time and money defeating their bad ideas,"
said Kevin Looper, executive director of Our Oregon, a labor-backed
coalition that regularly battles the conservative signature-gathering
machine.
"We will win this debate every time, but they make us have it, and in
doing so, they soak up institutional resources and try to advance their
cause by giving red meat to their base," Looper said.
Since 1998, Sizemore and his anti-tax, anti-union allies have qualified
at least 12 measures for the ballot. Voters rejected all of them.
Sizemore said next year will be different.
"Let me just say I expect 2008 to be a banner year for conservatives in
Oregon. I fully intend to pass several of the measures we are placing on
the ballot," he said.
Mannix hasn't backed an initiative in a decade, but Sizemore has
remained one of Oregon's most prolific ballot initiative activists
despite a court ruling that organizations he once headed engaged in
"cynical, criminal manipulation of the democratic process."
Mannix, the chief sponsor of 1994's Measure 11 that imposed mandatory
minimum sentences for a long list of violent crimes, said he isn't
returning to the initiative process to further his personal political
ambitions.
"I'm not doing it as a substitute for running for public office," Mannix
said. "I focus on things I think are popular and will get support. I do
pick my targets pretty carefully."
Another familiar initiative player is Lon Mabon a activist whose
anti-gay initiatives have repeatedly failed. He is promoting two similar
initiatives for next year.
Some of Sizemore's ballot drives for next year are the same causes he
has championed in past years.
One of those was Measure 91, a 2000 initiative that would have allowed
Oregon individual and corporate taxpayers to reduce their Oregon taxable
income by the full amount they paid in federal income taxes rather than
the limited deduction allowed under current law. A similar ballot
initiative also was defeated last year.
Measure 91 was defeated by more than 150,000 votes. This year, Sizemore
has gathered 129,827 signatures for a proposed 2008 ballot measure that
would enact the same tax break but only for individuals.
If the measure makes the November ballot, it will draw fierce opposition
from teachers, other public employees, social welfare advocates and
others because of its projected effects on state government revenues.
According to the Internal Revenue Service, in 2005 Oregonians paid $19.7
billion in federal income taxes. Under the existing, limited tax break
for federal tax payments, they claimed $2.9 billion in deductions from
state taxable income.
Under the Sizemore proposal, another $16.8 billion would be excluded
from Oregon taxable income, reducing state revenues by more than $1.5
billion a year.
Looper predicted that Sizemore, Mannix and their allies will qualify a
dozen or more measures for the 2008 ballot.
"This is a big election year," he said. "They have learned that this
works."
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Oh geez, Mabon's back. Haven't they caught him in an airport bathroom
or something yet?
Curt
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It's DUCK season!
WABBIT SEASON!
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