Common Curse and the Initiative Process

The Rocky Mountain News has a very interesting piece about the unintended consequences of the initiative process in general and specifically Common Curse's (aka. Common Cause) last two successful initiatives, Amendment 27 & 41.

A real fight is brewing with in the Democrat's ranks over the implementation of A-41, which can only be good for the Republicans.

However the boarder reaching issue is that most voters really don't understand the amendments that they are voting on.

Speaking about the problems with A-41, Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald said, "I think the supporters need to go back to the voters. And quite frankly, the citizens need to do a better job of educating themselves on what these ballot measures really do."

The the real problem is that the initiative system makes several basic and flawed assumptions.

It assumes that the electorate is well informed enough to fully understand the consequences of initiatives that even lawyers can't explain. It also assumes that the people we elect to represent us in Denver aren't going to do a good enough job, and we need to circumvent the expensive legislative process.

What do we pay our legislators for, if we are unwilling to let them write our laws? The initiative process is nothing more than an instrument of bad public policy and bad politics.

Money quote:

"If the voters didn't trust us enough to let lobbyists buy us a sandwich in the Capitol basement, imagine how they would feel about a legislative rollback of their handiwork," Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany R-Colorado Springs.

McElhany, Groff stick it to Polis, Ward

Senate President Pro tem Peter Groff (D-Denver) and Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany (R-Colorado Springs) just announced that they are introducing legislation to fully implement Jared Polis' Amendment 41, as written.

This is a major escalation in the pressure on Polis for his poorly worded, and generally daft "ethics" amendment. Full implementation of A-41 is very, very bad for Polis' public image, as well as, being generally bad policy. This is a well calculated move my McElhany to use Groff's personal dislike of Polis (and ties to Fitz-Gerald) to strength the position of the Republican party.

This is also a shot across the bow of Senator Steve Ward who, as previously mentioned, is Senate Sponsor for a Polis backed legislative "fix" of A-41. Ward is crossing the good of his party, the will of the Minority office, and good public policy to score cheap, "bi-partisan" political points.

Developing Story....

[UPDATE]
Read McElhany and Groff's full comments here.

Amend. 41 "Fix" Would Shatter GOP Gains

Up until now, General Assembly Republicans had done a good job of sticking together and getting out of the way of the liberal legislation express train that has the potential to run the Colorado Democrats into the ground. The Caucus has generally held together well, and let the Dems shoot themselves in the foot, with anti-business, big government legislation.

There have been a torrent of rumors coming out of the statehouse about what was going to happen with Amendment 41 (A-41). Who wanted to fix it, and how it could be fixed were hotly debated questions.

It was strongly sensed that Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald didn't want anything done about A-41 since her potential CD-2 primary opponent Jared Polis was the financial power and brains behind A-41.

However, according to today's RMN, Senator Steve Ward (R-Centennial) and Representative Rosemary Marshall (D-Denver) will be sponsoring legislation to "fix" A-41. This is a bad idea not only for Ward, but for the Republican party in Colorado.

A-41 is the brain child of one the liberal-billionaires who bought the state legislature for the Democrat Party in 2004 and 2006. Polis' poorly worded Amendment was meant to "fix" the influence of lobbyists over politicians, instead it prevent municipal employee's children from receiving college scholarships.

Polis screwed up and he knows it. The hostility that has risen over A-41 is very good for Republican. There has been a plethora of finger pointing news articles, featuring Dems bashing Dems. This is great for the Republican party and the conservative cause (two issues which don't always walk hand-in-hand).

A-41 is bad policy, so why try to fix it when it could be repealed it all together?

Could Ward be trying to burnish his "moderate" credentials for a potential run in the CO-6 primary? Ward also broke ranks with his pro-life colleagues to vote twice in favor of the Dems Emergency Contraceptive Bill (SB07-60). Ward is out of his mind if he thinks he can run to the left and win a Republican Primary.

From the article:

Ward said he decided to sponsor the legislation because he feels it is the duty of the legislature to tackle the issue instead of "punting" it to the courts.

He said he voted for Amendment 41 and talked last weekend to numerous constituents who want the law's problems fixed.

He also is bracing for stiff opposition and indicated that he might not support the bill later if he feels it violates the intent of the voters. [Emphasis added]

That is truly a political contortion in the fashion of the prime contortionist himself, John Kerry. Ward will supporting changing A-41 so long as he feels that it is politically expedient for him to do it.

Ward's trip off the GOP reservation have raised the hackles of Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany:

[McElhany] said Wednesday the bill would drill "a truck-sized loophole" through the new law.

McElhany called the measure "unconstitutional" and a "full- blown rollback."

Read McElhany's full remarks at ColoradoSenateNews.com.