Initiative

Jessica Garrison of the LA Times has a terrific story today about how the California ballot initiative to ban same-sex marriage, Prop 8, came together. She points to a moment last year when San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, instead of vetoing a bill to support gay marriage, declared that one of his daughters was gay and signed it. Conservative opponents of same-sex marriage felt betrayed -- a feeling that fueled the campaign. The story also demonstrates how much the anti-gay marriage campaign is a product of San Diego, its politics, and its churches.

Gay marriage supporters have organized a boycott of San Diego hotels whose owner is a donor to Prop 8, the California initiative to ban same-sex marriage. The New York Times takes notice here. One important bit of news: opponents of gay marriage are highlighting the boycott to attempt to spark a backlash and raise money. I wonder if they're on to something. The No on Prop 8 campaign -- which is the pro-gay marriage side -- can only lose if it seems to attack opponents of gay marriage in a way that seems to be attacking their religion. (The hotelier, Doug Manchester, is a Catholic). They need to make the positive case for the rights of gay couples to marry, and to emphasize that passing the initiative could lead to cancellation of those couples who have recently married. This campaign is a fight over voters who are undecided on the issue -- voters who are comfortable with gay couples but aren't sure about calling their unions marriage. These aren't voters who are going to respond to attacks or boycotts; in fact, they may shrink from them.

Frank Schubert, the longtime political consultant and initiative expert who is managing the Prop 8 (ban on gay marriage) campaign in California, has an interesting bit of spin in response to the Field Poll. He notes that the numbers have moved -- ever so slightly -- in the direction of the initiaitve since a previous survey. (One note: the movement is within the poll's margin of error). He also offers an interesting historical tidbit: back in 2002, the Field Poll significantly underestimated support for Prop 22, the successful 2000 initiative that added a ban on gay marriage into state law. It was Prop 22 that was overturned by the California Supreme Court in May. The new initiative would place a ban on gay marriage in the state constitution.

A San Francisco ballot initiative to name a city sewage plant for President George W. Bush has qualified for the ballot.

He's not. But expect the question to be asked during the Democratic National Convention in Denver. Jeff Peckman, the sponsor of the Denver ballot initiative to establish a city extraterrestrial commission, is already planning to address reporters during the week. It's a good idea. Conventions produce so little news that Peckman will draw a crowd. Peckman also suggests the aliens have surpassed us in the development of alternative fuels, and thus have something to teach us.

The initiative has not yet qualified for the ballot. Peckman says he's targeting the May 2009 city ballot.

One question he won't be able to answer: Who will the aliens endorse? That critical endorsement may go unreported this year. The Weekly World News, which usually reported on the presidential endorsements of space aliens, is dead.

A solid story of the kind we don't see from newspapers anymore. Here is a soup to nuts examination of Washington's Initiative 1000, the so-called "Death With Dignity" or assisted suicide measure.

An effort to qualify a ballot initiative to legalize the retail sale of marijuana in Oregon has begun. Backers, dba Oregonians for Cannabis Reform, told reporters that they' want their measure to be on the 2010 ballot there. Under their proposal, pot would be sold at licensed liquor stores.

That's the concern being expressed about a South Dakota initiative, Measure 10 on the November ballot, that would bar the use of taxpayer funds for lobbying. Cities, counties and school districts lobby the state government, and they use taxpayer funds. They're concerned.

This piece from Capitol Weekly is a must-read. It profiles Courtni Pugh, the sharpest labor strategist I met during my admittedly brief time covering labor for the LA Times. It also reports that SEIU California may be close to backing the redistricting reform initiative on the November ballot. Such an endorsement could be a game-changer for that initiative, whose political prospects have not been good. And if SEIU is looking at such an endorsement, it's a good bet that the union has a lot of research and numbers that suggest that changing the reapportionment rules might make it easier to elect more labor-friendly politicians to office.

There are few things more painful -- and expensive than collecting a couple hundred thousand signatures on an initiative but not quite getting enough to qualify. But that's what happened in Washington state, where backers of an initiative to permit smoking in cigar bars and private clubs collected 213,000 signatures--but not the 225,000 required to make the November ballot.