Progressives Eye Ballot Initiatives to Advance Their Agenda

For years, Florida Sen. Kendrick Meek (Flemming Fellow-1996) fought an uphill battle to strengthen public schools, as his proposals were consistently defeated by a conservative-dominated legislature.

So in 2001, Meek stepped outside the legislative process to launch a ballot initiative campaign to reduce class sizes in every grade throughout the state. His coalition is about to submit the signatures required to qualify the measure for the November 2002 ballot.

Meek is at the forefront of a recent trend-legislators and advocates using ballot initiatives to advance progressive policy. Frustrated by the legislative process, they are finding success in building public campaigns to place statutes or constitutional amendments on the ballot for a vote. This year, nearly as many progressive initiatives as conservative proposals qualified for state ballots.

Nevertheless, progressive groups have been hesitant to embrace the ballot initiative process. “While progressives have largely stood on the sidelines, right-wing groups carried out a comprehensive ballot initiative strategy to mobilize conservative activists and voters around a coherent issue agenda, and keep progressive constituencies-like labor, women, minorities, gays, civil libertarians-scattered and on the defensive,” explained Kristina Wilfore, Executive Director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center (BISC).

“Surprisingly, state legislators seem to overlook the important role progressive initiatives play in state politics, and how they can be used effectively in conjunction with a legislative strategy,” noted Washington Sen. Karen Keiser (Flemming Fellow-2002). Ironically, it was progressives and populists that created the initiative process a century ago, in an effort to wrest control of state policy decisions from wealthy special interest groups.

In the early years, many landmark victories were won thanks to the ballot initiative: women were given the right to vote before passage of the 19th Amendment; the minimum wage was increased; and an eight-hour workday was established. Over time, however, use of the ballot initiative process declined.

Then, in 1978, anti-tax crusaders in California sponsored and passed Proposition 13, which slashed property taxes and ignited a nationwide tax revolt. The Reagan victory of 1980 allowed right-wing economic, corporate, and social organizations to launch a coordinated attack that continues today-using the ballot measure system to promote an extremist agenda: so-called “paycheck protection” initiatives used to silence the voices of working families; anti-affirmative action initiatives that turn back the clock on civil rights; anti-choice initiatives that place more restrictions on women’s reproductive health rights; anti-environmental initiatives that give polluters free rein; anti-gay initiatives that sanction discrimination; and voucher initiatives that seek to move public funds away from public schools.

After years of battling the flood of right-wing ballot measures, national progressive groups founded BISC in 1998 to help organizations, legislators and activists wage more effective ballot initiative campaigns.

“We’re trying to help progressives realize that, if used strategically, initiative campaigns can engage disinterested voters, help support progressive candidates, build coalitions, frame a progressive message, and create proactive change,” said Wilfore.

In recent years, progressives have used ballot initiatives to enact clean election laws, protect the environment, increase tobacco taxes to expand health care, and close the gun show loophole.

This November, measures are expected to qualify for the ballot that would increase the minimum wage, lower public school class sizes, and allow same-day voter registration. As Sen. Kendrick Meek and others have learned, ballot initiatives have become an important new battleground for state policy-and progressives are finally ready to take the offensive.