Keyword: initiatives
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California Democrats and their labor union allies are embracing anti-democratic principles to thwart the will of the people.In his first inaugural address in January 1911, California's progressive Gov. Hiram Johnson detailed a far-reaching "people's reform program" that would help wrest control of the state's government from what his contemporaries called "The Octopus"—a reference to muckraker Frank Norris' 1901 novel about the outsized power of Southern Pacific Railroad. As Norris explained, the Cyclopean sea monster was a "symbol of a vast power, huge, terrible, flinging the echo of its thunder over all the reaches of the valley, leaving blood and destruction...
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Two citizens campaigns to legalize recreational marijuana in Florida are headed in opposite directions, with one contending it’s close to getting on the 2020 ballot and the other saying it’s unlikely to get the needed signatures in time. Make It Legal Florida, backed and financed by the medical marijuana industry, has gathered close to 600,000 signatures, chairman Nick Hansen said Tuesday. That would be more than 75% of the 766,200 needed to get on the ballot in November 2020, though only about 119,000 had been verified Tuesday. But Karen Goldstein, vice-chair of Regulate Florida, which backs more sweeping legal marijuana...
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This week, while Donald Trump ensnares himself in the most serious threat to his presidency to date, Congress is, to some extent, continuing with the typical business of government. A series of hearings during “Infrastructure Week†are focusing on the administration’s rumored infrastructure plan.Although the White House has been talking up private infrastructure investment as a replacement for public funding, a panel of experts told Congress that, even with perfectly executed public-private partnerships, the federal government still needs to provide its own support — especially for projects, like transit lines, that aren’t guaranteed to generate toll revenue for profit-seeking investors.This...
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The left’s scheme is to essentially buy the media with the millions they have at their disposal. And losing isn’t a big deal to them, Rusnak said. Even single wins here and there helps them advance their agenda, whereas any loss for pro-gun advocates is a loss of our freedoms. The scheme was at its most effective in Washington State. With the successful passage in 2014 of Initiative 594, the anti-gunners spent $10 million to pass the law. And they won. Still, even though they won and the NRA was outspent 20 to one, the anti-gunners couldn’t even get 60...
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Initiative and Referendum States
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When Marylanders go to the polls in November, the most interesting races might not involve political candidates. The state’s voters will elect eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives and one U.S. senator, and will help choose a president, but an unprecedented slate of ballot initiatives is expected to set the state’s course on social issues, including same-sex marriage and illegal immigration, and potentially on gambling and congressional redistricting. This will be the first time in 20 years that a voter-petitioned referendum makes the state’s ballot, and as many as three could appear. All were initiated by Republicans who...
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-the initiative received -- $250,000 last month to support a ballot measure that would ban payroll deductions for raising money for political purposes, ... Two days after the California Faculty Association Political Issues Committee put $350,000 into opposing it. -The initiative will start- a political slugfest that could total $50 million or more in campaign spending by the time voters decide on the measure in November.
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Democrats Propose Measures To Rein In California Initiative Process Some say the bevy of voter-mandated programs leaves lawmakers hamstrung and that the process is subject to abuse by special interests. Critics say the proposed changes would 'neuter direct democracy.' California is the only state that doesn't allow its Legislature to amend or repeal statutes created by voters. By Michael J. Mishak, August 26, 2011 Reporting from Sacramento— Democrats in the Legislature are trying to make it harder for Californians to pass their own laws at the ballot box, saying the state's century-old initiative process has been hijacked by the special...
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Do California Democrats want to eviscerate the initiative process, or merely smother it to death with a blanket of supposed reforms? The party has almost complete control of state government and apparently doesn't want to contend with pesky ballot measures. So this year – the 100th anniversary of the initiative, the referendum and the recall – it has declared war. Last weekend, the state Democratic executive board made it official, declaring that "the initiative process is being abused by the use of misleading titles and advertisements by unscrupulous signature-gathering companies, hired signature collectors, and concealed sponsors to create laws and...
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To the Members of the California State Senate: I am returning Senate Bill 168 without my signature. This bill makes it a crime for a person to payor receive money (or any other thing of value) based-directly or indirectly--on the number of signatures obtained on a state or local initiative, referendum, or recall petition. While runderstand the potential abuses of the current per-signature payment system, 1 believe this bill is flawed for two reasons. First, this bill would effectively prohibit organizations from even setting targets or quotas for those they hire to gather signatures. It doesn't seem very practical to...
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Legislators are forever looking for ways to "improve" the initiative process. And why not? Direct democracy infringes on their power. California needs fewer ballot propositions, not more. The system needs an overhaul. But Gov. Jerry Brown should veto Senate Bill 168, on his desk, a veiled attempt to limit initiatives in a loaded manner... Supporters include organized labor, which long has made heavy use of direct democracy. Unions could rely on members and their family and friends to sign petitions, and perhaps could gain an advantage over rivals if the pay-by-signature system were outlawed. The California Chamber of Commerce and...
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The Obama administration more than doubled spending on cycling and walking initiatives to $1.2 billion (£810 million) last year as it seeks to coax Americans out of their cars. Spending on biking and walking projects rose from less than $600 million (£407 million) in 2008, according to the Federal Highway Administraion. Twenty years ago, the federal government was spending only $6 million a year on such projects. The spending on biking and walking projects was scheduled to rise last year anyway, but the administration boosted it with $400 million in funds set aside under the economic recovery program. The new...
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Gay rights activists say they have failed to qualify a measure that would repeal California's same-sex marriage ban for the November ballot. Restore Equality 2010 chairman Sean Bohac says the volunteer-run group fell short of gathering the nearly 695,000 signatures needed to put the initiative before voters. Monday was the deadline for submitting the signatures to the Secretary of State's Office. Bohac says Restore Equality's failed effort was undermined by the decision of more established gay rights groups not to participate in the campaign. He says same-sex marriage supporters now are turning their attention to trying to repeal Proposition 8...
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Glenn Beck has now supplanted Rush Limbaugh as the most influential broadcaster in America. He's the one the tea-party movement looks to. Beck wowed the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) crowd Feb 20 with his attack on progressivism, which he said must be "eradicated." "Progressivism is the cancer in America and it's eating our Constitution," Beck told the crowd. Now that Beck has given his marching orders, expect to hear all the Fox Puppets echoing him. The goal is to discredit "progressivism" as they did "liberalism." Beck fancies himself a historian; his patter is full of historical references that seem...
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Obama announces economic aid for struggling middle class families WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama is offering new ideas meant to help struggling people pay bills and care for their families, aiming to help a middle-class he says has been "under assault for a long time." Obama and Vice President Joe Biden outlined a series of proposals that will be in Obama's budget next month. They include a doubling of the child care tax credit for families earning under $85,000, a program to cap student loan payments for people carrying a big college debt burden and aid for families taking...
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Former Gov. Hiram Johnson, recently posthumously inducted into the California Museum’s Hall of Fame, helped create California’s initiative process to break the stranglehold of the railroads on the state Legislature. Johnson, a Sacramento native who was governor from 1911 to 1917, is likely spinning in his grave. As of December 14, there are 45 measures being circulated for voter signatures, another 38 are awaiting titles and summaries by the Attorney General. So far, three initiatives have qualified for the 2010 primary election – the most significant of which would create open primaries in 2012 allowing voters to cast a ballot...
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Voters' distrust of the people they elect has been around as long as voting itself. But armed with a 98-year-old constitutional weapon, California voters repeatedly have parlayed that distrust into making laws on their own - and greatly complicated the state's budget process. "There's not a lot of faith in Sacramento or in the process," said Robert Stern, president of the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies and an expert on California's initiative system. "I think the initiative (process) expresses that lack of faith ... but it quite literally adds another layer to finding good solutions." It's a layer that has...
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Direct link to California Secretary of State tabular results of California initiatives.
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WASHINGTON (AFP) – The administration of President Barack Obama is considering new bailout initiatives that will allow troubled companies to benefit from rescue programs while avoid restrictions imposed by Congress, The Washington Post reported Saturday. ... Experts at the Obama administration have concluded that this approach is vital for persuading firms to participate in programs funded by the 700-billion-dollar financial rescue package, the report said. The administration believes it can sidestep the rules because, .. it has decided not to provide federal aid directly to financial companies,.. Instead, the government has set up special entities that act as middlemen, channeling...
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By Derek H. Davis, J.D., Ph.D. Director, UMHB Center for Religious Liberty University of Mary Hardin-Baylor Belton, Texas WASHINGTON, DC - President Barack Obama signed an executive order on Thursday, February 5, to create the White House Office of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships. The office replaces the controversial Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives that George W. Bush created to provide government grants to churches and other faith-based organizations to administer welfare programs. ”The goal of this office will not be to favor one religious group over another–or even religious groups over secular groups,” Obama stated when announcing the new...
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