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We just went through a similar process in our county. The Washington state constitution set the workings for county government in place, but allowed for a "convention of freeholders" to be voted on by citizens. If passed the Freeholders would then write a new county charter that would be put to the voters for ratification.

Last year the democrats circulated petitions to authorize the county charter initiative for the ballot in the hopes that they could go waaaaay to the left with an environmental bill of rights guaranteeing that tree would have legal representation and fracking would be prohibited. Oddly enough, trees control the politics in this county that is 97% government and national forest land.

Well, the petitioners gathered enough votes and the issue hit the ballot along with the required number of freeholder candidates running for positions in the convention. As the election drew near it began to look as though there was growing support for common sense candidates and libertarians and the democrats whole control the county turned against their own initiative and defeated it.

The outcome was no surprise, but the show was fun to watch.