The headlines from this morning's new Public Policy Institute of California poll all focus on Prop 8. But there isn't much surprising in those numbers. Evangelicals and Republicans overwhelmingly supported Prop 8. No kidding. The poll also documented the intensity gap between Prop 8's supporters (74 percent considered the outcome of Prop 8 very important) and its opponents (59 percent considered the outcome very important).

This Oakland Tribune story, which quotes your blogger, suggests a number of factors, including the inflexibility of California's initiative system. It's so hard to change initiatives via other means that the default position is to go to court.

That's what some are saying about Prop 105 in Arizona, and I tend to agree. The ballot initiative is being sold as an anti-tax measure, because a majority of those voting would no longer be enough to pass a tax or mandate government spending. Instead, a majority of all registered voters to pass a tax or spending. That's a high, high bar -- given that voter turnout in state elections hovers around 50 percent. But since, almost any initiative would require some government spending, this effectively end the initiative process in Arizona.

If this were to pass, and it has a great name "Majority Rules," the initiative also could have one unintended consequence: reducing the number of registered voters in Arizona. At the very least, interest groups and many leading politicians would have a major incentive to reduce the number of registered voters--precisely to make it easier for initiatives to pass.

Conservatives there, many of them active in fighting same sex marriage, are calling for a constitutional convention that would permit full direct democracy in the Nutmeg State, including ballot initiatives.

Labor is organizing to oppose the effort. The last state to adopt the initiative process was Mississippi more than a decade ago. In most states, political leaders are going the other direction, attempting to reduce the ability of voters to legislate all by themselves. If Connecticut adopts the initiative, it would be the 25th state to do so, and the 28th to adopt direcdt democracy in some form.