I did not know much about ballot initiatives before getting involved with Fair And Open Competition Sacramento. But here's how it works. You need to get a certain percentage of registered voters in the given area to sign a ballot initiative. Once the signatures are all verified and meet the quantity required, the initiative goes on the ballot to take the issue to the voters. Voters still have the choice to approve or reject it. Achieving the signatures just means it goes to a vote, not that it becomes law. People make a living collecting signatures for these measures, regardless of whether an initiative is sponsored by corporations like Amazon or industry groups like ours, or by the unions. The signature collectors are trained on the topic, and station themselves at grocery stores, Home Depot, or go door to door getting paid to collect the signatures. This is what SB168 tried to ban - meaning you would have to get volunteers to do this process day in and day out - effectively making it very difficult to ever get an initiative on the ballot.
The other way to create a new law is for our legislature to submit it, both houses approve it, and the governor signs it. The more and more I have gotten involved with politics I have sadly learned that THIS process is NOT about the people. This process is about special interests - whether Republican or Democrat. People with money pay their lobbyists to spend all day at the Capitol to pressure lawmakers to submit bills that favor them. The media likes to state that these lobbyists are all paid for by, what's the term, oh yeah "corporate jet owners and big oil". That never ceases to crack me up.
Actually, it's industry groups that pay lobbyists. Contractors, unions, pharmacy groups, teachers, airline pilots, farmers, whatever. If you have a big enough group and collect enough money, you have a lobbyist. Many of these groups also always back political candidates during their campaign. So guess whose lobbyists get the attention? That's right, whichever groups helped get lawmakers elected. It's a sad, sad process. But hey, that's democracy, right?!?
So, the only way that actual voters can get something passed into law is the ballot initiative process. Lawmakers HATE this process because it takes the control out of their hands, and voters truly don't always understand implications that can happen from passing a ballot initiative. But still, it's our only voice other than our ability to vote for a politician.
I believe Senate Bill 168 is a direct attack against the current initiatives that are circulating, including ours for Fair And Open Competition Sacramento. It was widely backed by the unions. And even though the unions were the major funding source for Jerry Brown's campaign, he told them no by vetoing this bill. (He also told them no by vetoing the agriculture card check bill.) RIGHT ON JERRY!!
There are several other tactics the opponents of these ballot measures are using to scare voters away. The Building Trades Unions association helped sponsor a radio ad that tells people they shouldn't sign initiatives because of identity theft (see here and here). The SEIU has circulated a flyer telling people not only to not sign them but to call in the location of the ballot circulators and record their gender and what they look like. The unions have also sent out people to the sites where our signature gatherers are stationed, where they physically try to block and intimidate people from signing our petitions.
In a future post I will share with you what the opponents of our initiative are saying as to why they think it's a bad idea, and our responses as to why they are wrong. But I won't fill your head with too much right now, lest I bore you. . . .
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