Initiative Blues

There's a lot happening in Canadian politics, with Jack Layton now insisting he will no longer prop up the Liberal government. I'll have more to say on that, but I want to take some time tonight to talk about the elections going on in the U.S., particularly the initiatives in California. This is for my blogging friend Lores, my favorite conservative blogger, who lives in California. Lores has been very kind in her comments here, but will mostly disagree with my take on this.

The premise of holding this special election in California seems cynical. Gov. Schwarzenegger, lest we forget, was swept into power in a recall election that came about largely under false pretenses. It turned out that the energy crisis in California was not as much a result of government mismanagement as it was from gouging and other shenanigans by Enron and other suppliers. Nonetheless, Arnold is now the duly elected governor and, as such, it is his responsibility to lead. And because he didn't feel like he could get enough of his agenda passed by an opposition legislature, he decided to take some issues to the people. But why now? If he had waited a year, he could have had all of these initiatives on the ballot at the same time he was up for re-election. And then if he had won, he would have his mandate clearly defined by the results of the initiative voting. Better yet (for him and his supporters), he could have decided to spend the next year emphasizing the importance of his platform, and making the case to get more Republicans elected to the legislature in order to enact it. Time and time again I have seen people from both parties, but mostly Republicans, going on about the virtues of representative democracy and how it works so much better than a direct vote on issues. I guess everybody has the right to flip-flop when it suits the ends they wish to achieve. So, the Governator has tried to sneak through legislation at a time when most of the electorate is sleeping. I'm not really sure how this will affect the outcome. It could be that the people who support these initiatives will be the most motivated to get out there and vote, or maybe those who wish to see Arnold defeated will be energized. Whatever happens, the vote probably won't be a representative sampling of the state, which is a shame.

As for the initiatives themselves, I'll only talk about a couple of them. Prop 77 involves taking the responsibility of re-districting away from the legislature. I like the idea in principle, but the devil seems to be in the details. There has to be some level of accountability on those responsible for the re-districting, and hopefully a way of insuring political independence. Polls seem to indicate this will be defeated (although turnout will be the key.) If so, I hope this is tweaked and taken to the people again in the near future. This is one thing that the people need to vote on, because you can't expect the legislature to vote to relinquish power. Interestingly, Republicans support this initiative in California but oppose something similar in Ohio. See above regarding "when it suits the ends they wish to achieve." Prop 75 would require unions to get written consent from its members before using their dues for political activities or contributions. I can see why a lot of people would support this, and Lores wrote about her frustration with having to join a union to be a teacher and seeing her union dues being spent on political activity she didn't support. However, this initiative, on its face, seems to be there just to damage the Democratic Party in California. It should really be balanced with some similar provision for shareholders in corporations. That would level the playing field.

I'm not a Californian, so my opinions don't really mean squat. But I'll still take a consultant fee from anybody willing to pay it.

UPDATE: The results are in, and all of Arnold's initiatives have been defeated. It'll be interesting to see how many political obits will be written over the next few days.