WHY DOESN'T NH HAVE MORE INITIATIVE(S)?

YESTERDAY CITIZENS from New Jersey to California voted on an
assortment of ballot initiatives dealing with subjects ranging from
taxes to the definition of marriage.

One might think that New Hampshire, where politics is the state
pastime and there always seems to be an election in the works, would
have initiative as well, but we don't.

Initiative refers to the people's ability to put legislation or
constitutional amendments on the ballot by petition.

Twenty four states allow citizen initiative, including Maine and Massachusetts.

Initiative is used by both conservative and liberal activists to put
issues before the voters when reluctant legislatures fail to act.
Americans for Tax Reform's Grover Norquist notes that "One big
difference between initiatives and elected representatives is that
initiatives don't change their minds once you vote them in." Left
wing icon Ralph Nader loves the initiative as well, although neither
side has a clear advantage when it comes to getting its priorities
passed this way.

On the conservative side, anti-tax activists have successfully used
initiatives to place caps on spending, highlighted by California's
passage of Proposition 13 in 1978. Colorado's taxpayer bill of rights
(TABOR), which was suspended last week in a referendum vote,
originally came about through citizen initiative. Pro-family
activists have helped more than a dozen states define marriage as
between one man and one woman, a subject Texans voted on yesterday.

In California, citizens led a successful effort requiring schools to
adopt English-only instruction. Massachusetts used initiative to pass
a law requiring parental notification for minors seeking abortions,
an issue California voted on this year. Amway founder Dick DeVos
funded a Michigan initiative supporting school choice (it failed).

On the left, initiative is a favored tool of environmentalists,
animal rights activists and campaign finance reform fanatics.

Supporters of liberalized drug laws passed initiative-led laws
allowing the medicinal use of marijuana in several states (while
failing in others). Oregon legalized physician assisted suicide this
way. Colorado voted to require background checks on people who make
purchases at gun shows.

George Soros, the sugar daddy behind Moveon.org and a Web of other
left-wing organizations, funded a big-government health care
initiative that failed in Massachusetts in 2000.

New Hampshire considered adopting the initiative during
constitutional conventions in 1902 and 1912, at the height of the
Progressive Era, but the efforts failed.

Some at the time blamed the defeats on moneyed special interests
associated with the leading railway companies.

Implementing initiatives today would require a state constitutional
amendment, either at a future constitutional convention - the last
one was held in 1984, and in 2002 the state voted narrowly against
reconvening - or by action of the Legislature. Legislative-borne
amendments require a 60 percent vote in both houses followed by a
two-thirds vote of the public, a very high threshold rarely met, as
the fight over school spending illustrates.

Ironically, New Hampshire has the initiative process on the local
level in spades.

Every year voters weigh in on scores of issues placed on the ballot
by local citizen-activists. Yesterday Laconia voted on a citizen-led
tax cap proposal. Articles dealing with open space have become common
in towns across the state.

Two years ago Bristol voted down a petitioned article which would
have allowed drive-through windows at commercial establishments, a
defeat that disappointed Dunkin' Donuts customers everywhere.

One risk of initiative is that special interest groups can hijack the
process to advance narrow agendas. In 2003, organized labor
successfully placed language promoting affordable health care on the
spring ballots of dozens of New Hampshire towns. Mischief makers
managed to convince Claremont voters to express opposition to No
Child Left Behind this way, while in Marlborough a warrant advising
officials not to cooperate with the FBI if the bureau tried to
enforce the Patriot Act passed on a voice vote during town meeting.

That sort of political cheek is relatively harmless, but it's not
hard to imagine what an initiative campaign funded by gambling
interests bent on bringing casinos to New Hampshire might look like.
An initiative allocating state money to preserve open space might
energize interesting coalitions.

For good or ill, initiative lets the people decide such questions.

A state like New Hampshire, which takes democracy so seriously, ought
to allow that.