On the Street: A Comprehensive Report

UPDATED APRIL 4 After two nights of contacting gatherers and reading initiatives from all over the country (AND SOME EXCELLENT CORRECTIONS ON ARKANSAS AND MICHIGAN FROM Ballotpedia), here's my report on what's "on the street" and circulating in this great democratic land of ours. Please let me know if you think I'm missing important measures. For a more progressive take and focus, you can look at the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center's issues map.

THE GOLDEN STATE: California leads the way, with 52 measures circulating as of April 2 (and more to come, almost certainly). The whole list is here. "We're drowning," the owner of one signature gathering firm told me Thursday. About a dozen seem to have funding to get on signature gatherers' clipboards. Two new initiatives (one that would remove a prohibition on discrimination based on sexual orientation in schools, another a tobacco tax hike to pay for children's health insurance) were titled and approved for circulation Tuesday. They join three new measures -- one banning abortion, one banning stem cell research and the other banning cloning -- that also were recently approved for circulation, though such socially conservative measures typically have trouble attracting the money to qualify for the ballot in California.

ARIZONA wins the award for most circulating initiatives per capita, with 37 measures, 19 of them constitutional amendments and 18 initiative statutes. Reading the list, one gets the impression that Arizonans are so angry that they may leave the country, raising the question of whether John McCain will be eligible to be president. There are measures to maintain initiative rights (which legislators have talked about limiting), roll back taxes (the sponsors have names like Arizona Tax Revolt and Prop 13 Arizona). The blockbuster democracy industry is closely watching one initiative statute that would allow petitions to be circulated via the Internet; industry types tend to like the idea, in that it would control costs, but signature gatherers worry about being cut out of the street action. My personal favorite: an initiative that would require two witnesses before a crime might be prosecuted. There's also an initiative, sponsored by a group calling itself Arizona Tea Party, that would require someone who testifies falsely against another person in court to receive the same punishment that the accused would have received.  And you wonder why they called it the Wild West. 

In OREGON, 40 measures are listed as formally approved to circulate for the 2008 ballot, but the deadlines and energy for most of those have long passed. The most important measure currently on the street, according to signature gatherers is naturally an initiative that protects the rights of signature gatherers, by limiting the ability of the state to regulate them. (Oregon has been one of a handful of states to try to limit paid signature-gathering). The initiative also would permit ballot initiatives to be considered at primary elections as well as at general elections. Among the dozen or so measures currently on gatherers' clipboards in the Beaver State are initiatives that would create a renewable energy commission, alter the medical marijuana laws, establish a non-partisan or open primary, and prohibits legislators from receiving public pensions.

WASHINGTON is having a big year, with 43 measures filed, numbered and titled for circulation. (Two were approved for circulation and withdrawn; two more have been filed but are not ready for circulation). With some of those filings being different versions of the same measure, signature gatherers say they've seen as many as 18 petitions on clipboards there. The assisted suicide measure sponsored by former Gov. Booth Gardner is getting the most attention. But there are multiple measures dealing with traffic, elections, and taxes. Here's the full list. Anything new and different? How about an initiative that would set aside public funds to pay for embryo transfers as an alternative to abortion? Or an initiative that would make it a crime to lie about war? Those two initiatives have the same author, a frequent initiative filer and Tacoma CAT scan technician named David Henshaw. There's also a measure that would prevent employers from firing cocktail waitresses who refuse to serve alcohol to pregnant women. 

NEVADA has 8 measures currently circulating officially, but the two attempts to raise taxes on gaming have been dropped, as has an education initiative.

MISSOURI has 20 measures approved for circulation, including Ward Connerly's anti-affirmative action measure and initiatives on renewable energy, a union-backed measure on the home health care workforce, an initiative to expand eligibility for children's health insurance, and another of the so-called "paycheck protection" measures which require employees to give their written permission before money from their paycheck is used for political purposes. 

ARKANSAS (updated April 4): Initiatives to institute a state lottery and ban adoption by same-sex couples are circulating. Thanks again to Ballotpedia.

MICHIGAN (updated April 4) has nine measures currently circulating, including legalization of marijuana use and cultivation on private property, a universal health care plan, an individual education accounts for children proposal, two tax measures, and two part-time legislature plans. 

COLORADO: 82 measures (updated 97) were filed for the 07-08 cycle, but only five are currently circulating. Signatures on the Ward Connerly measure were turned in last month. Among the few circulating are: a payroll deduction measure, restrictions on campaign contributions by government contractors, and judicial term limits. Under the category of comedy, initiatives to impeach former President Clinton are making their way through the process. Can you impeach a former president?

FLORIDA: 52 measures remain officially active, but signature gatherers say the street is dry in Florida. There likely will be only two measures on the November ballot -- one that would give the legislature power to regulate the land ownership of undocumented immigrants, and another prohibiting gay marriage.

ALASKA: In the only state where the lieutenant governor is in charge of initiatives, it's already late in the signature gathering season. (Alaskans favor summer elections--the next is in August -- because it's dark half the year). Here's a list of measures; the viables ones -- clean water, clean government, public finance -- have already submitted petitions. Readers of this blog know all about the measure to stop wolves from being shot from the air. 

MAINE: 10 measures have been circulating (here's the list), though a newspaper editor there tells me that only a handful are on the street. One measure would allow a casino in Oxford County, another would make the real estate Multiple Listing Service a public document.

IDAHO: Yes, they've got wolves, and an initiative that calls for their removal. It's one of three initiatives circulating. The others would make it easier to sue judges and others for their official duties, and would ban the building of new coal-fired and nuclear plants.

MONTANA: Three measures are out there. One is a property tax limitation, a constitutional amendment Another is a "personhood" measure, a constituional amendment -- and part of a new class of anti-abortion, anti-stem cell measures that seeks to define anything from a fertilized embryo on up as a human being. The third is an initiative statute to ease eligibility for a children's health insurance program.

NORTH DAKOTA: Six measures are pending, though the measures regulating hunting and school superintendents (wild game of another kind) seem to be the ones headed to the ballot.

SOUTH DAKOTA: Only one measure, a referendum of legislation relating to the eminent domain powers of railroads, is still circulating. Six measures -- almost all having to do with political reform -- already have made the 2008 ballot.

OHIO: Has a casino measure circulating, according to gatherers. Ballotpedia also lists a sick leave measure in circulation. The Ohio Ballot Board lists four measures that it has considered.

NEBRASKA: There have been four filings: the Connerly affirmative action ban, two measures that involve municipal annexations, and a telecom initiative. 

 QUIET ON THE STREETS (as far as I can determine) in New Mexico (which has the referendum but not the initiative), Illinois, Massachusetts (where the deadline was last November for submitting signatures on initiatives in the two-part process that gives the legislature a chance to weigh in first), Mississippi, Utah (where 2007 was the big referendum year), Wyoming (where the filing deadline came and went in February), and Oklahoma (where signatures on the anti-affirmative action initiative were turned in late last year).