Are Laws for Sale?
Ballot initiate no longer grass roots

by Jean McMillan, Associated Press

Boston -When lawmakers established the ballot initiative process 82 years ago, it was meant to be a way for ordinary citizens to get laws passed through grass roots movements.

But critics say the process is being warped - to the point where the deep-pocketed corporations are buying new laws. Financial filings turned in this week show corporations have spent wads of cash, in one case more than $4. Per each to collect petition signatures to get proposed laws on the November ballot.

Corporations with large special interests are really transforming the citizen initiative petition process into another marketplace where they can attempt to buy a law as if it were another consumer item,” said George Pillsbury, director of the non-profit Massachusetts Money and Politics Project.

There are no laws prohibiting businesses or other groups from using paid signature gatherers. But there’s no guarantee the groups that spend the most will be successful. A minimum of 57,100 certified signatures of registered voters are required for a referendum question to be considered.

Fidelity Investments paid $146,000, or $2.13 each, to have 68,478 signatures gathered in its quest to create a state tax deduction for people who give money to charity, according to analysis by Pillsbury’s group.

The Committee for Forfeiture Reform, backed by billionaire philanthropist George Soros, spent an average of $4.21 per certified signature to people who stand outside grocery stores and in shopping malls rounding up signers.

The signature gathering burden was meant to ensure the measures had broad-based support.

Instead, Pillsbury claims, the ballot questions aimed at getting the Legislature are often confusing to voters, who may be swayed one way or another by high-priced marketing campaigns.

“Laws are for sale when the public doesn’t know what they are voting on,” Pillsbury said.

The question that may be the least understood by the public could prove the costliest referendum battle in state history. The fight is being wage by Internet companies wanting access to the high-speed cable networks.

The Massachusetts Coalition for Consumer Choice and Competition on the Internet is being spearheaded by venture capitalist, Christopher Grace, who sold his company to America Online for $72.8 million.

Grace has spent more than $600,000 on promoting the referendum, including $188,775 to Spoon Works of Brookline to gather signatures.

“This is a rich businessman hijacking the ballot box for his own financial interest,” said Maria Farrah John of the Consumer and Internet Provides for Technology Competition, which is opposing the measure.

However, AT&T ponied up more than $1.1 million so far to Massachusetts and California for advertising and consulting firms to fight efforts for access to high-speed cable networks.

Grace did not return a call seeking comment.

“The process was different this year. Certainly not all petitions, but there was a greater use of paid signature gatherers than at any time that I can remember,” said lawyer Thomas Kiley, who has been involved in the ballot initiative process since 1975.

Gov. Paul Cellucci paid Nevada-bases National Voter Outreach $95,677 to gather signatures, along with volunteers from the Republican State Committee and the Citizens for Limited Taxation for a ballot question to roll-back the income tax to 5 percent.

In a previous effort, an all-volunteer force failed to get enough of a cushion of signatures and were knocked off the ballot. Cellucci and other supporters weren’t going to let that happen again, as they took in more than 150,000 signatures this time around.

This Associated Press article from the Jan.24, 2000 edition of The Patriot Ledger is reproduced with permission.

Patriot Ledger Editorial
Our view: Buying a ballot question
The Patriot Ledger

To everything there is a price, it seems. We know it takes a lot of money to run for state office. Now, it turns out, money was the reason some questions will make it on the ballot next November.

You've seen the signature collectors at the mall and outside the post office. They seem so sincere. Democracy in action.

Many voters will sign a petition to put a question on the ballot regardless of their opinion on the issue. It just seems so patriotic to encourage grass-roots decision-making.

Maybe voters wouldn't be as willing to sign if they knew the man or woman holding the petition was being paid and had no stake in the measure at all.

The preversion of the ballot initiative is troubling, especially when the signatures are being purchased on behalf of special interests who also use their considerable assets to influence lawmakers individually. The purpose of the initiative petition is to grant access to those who are not special interests but citizens who want to make a law or change one. Issues may wind up on the ballot via the signature route because the Legislature won't listen or the subject is too controversial. Sometimes the Legislature doesn't listen because the special interests already have gotten to lawmakers.

It takes a minimum of 57,100 signatures of registered voters to have a question considered. It's a lot, but it's designed that way to ensure there is widespread support for an issue.

The substantial sums of money paid to gather signatures came to light on financial record filings required by state law. A New York billionaire, George Soros, and other out-of-state donors spent $400,000 to put a drug question on the ballot. It aims to substitute drug treatment for jail time for some drug offenders.

Grace Internet Capital, which owns Internet companies, spent $600,000 on a ballot question that would require cable companies to open their lines to competitors. And Gov. Paul Cellucci and other Republicans helped pay more than $95,000 to gather signatures for the question to decrease the income tax to 5 percent. Barbara Anderson's Citizens for Limited Taxation and Government failed to collect enough signatures the old-fashioned way the last time out, in 1998.

There's little people can do about what opponents of paid signature collection call ``buying a law.'' Paid solicitors for charitable organizations are required to announce themselves, but hired hands in the signature-collecting business are not.

Being informed and curious can help. When approached next time, ask the individual if he or she is a volunteer or paid to collect names.

Copyright 2000 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted 26-JAN-00

This Patriot Ledger article from the Jan.26,2000 Web Page of the Patriot Ledger is reproduced with permission.