Using local measures to advance national agendas, 2015-2016
| • Power struggle between state and local government | ||
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Below are some instances from 2015 or 2016 that highlight this aspect of local ballot measures.
Marijuana
- See also: Local marijuana on the ballot
2016
Missouri
In Kansas City, Missouri, the city's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) proposed a city initiative for the 2016 ballot that would dictate a $50 fine as the maximum penalty for marijuana possession.[1]
Colorado
The Denver branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) proposed a city initiative to legalize the consumption of marijuana at certain clubs, lounges and bars.[2]
2015
| Up North Live, "Marijuana activists working towards legalization in Michigan," January 30, 2014 |
In Michigan, the effort to advance the larger agenda of widespread marijuana legalization was made explicit by the backers of more than a dozen local marijuana legalization initiatives. Tim Beck, a founder of the Safer Michigan Coalition, said the following about the series of local marijuana decriminalization and legalization initiatives the group backed throughout Michigan in the last decade:
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Our goal is to create confusion and chaos between state and local laws so our legislators in Lansing will step up to the plate and do the will of the people. Ultimately there needs to be marijuana legalization like they have in Colorado, where it is legal and regulated.[3] |
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| —Tim Beck, a founder of the Safer Michigan Coalition[4] | ||
This is a perfect example of the concept of advancing a statewide and nationwide agenda through a local ballot measure or a series of local ballot measures. The most recent instance of an initiative backed by the Safer Michigan Coalition was narrowly approved in the city of Portage on November 3, 2015. Two other similar measures appeared on 2015 ballots, and more than a dozen initiative campaigns were conducted in 2014. Efforts were made to put the issue of marijuana legalization on the 2016 statewide ballot through one of several statewide initiatives being circulated: the Marijuana Legalization Initiative and the Cannabis Control and Revenue Act. In 2017, many of the advocacy groups supporting marijuana legalization unified into one coalition backing an initiative legalization initiative designed to go on the ballot in 2018.
Also in 2015, voters in Toledo, Ohio, became the first Ohioans to cast a ballot on the issue of legalized or decriminalized marijuana through an initiative backed by the Northwest Ohio Chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Sean Nestor, a representative of NORML, said that his organization would back other local marijuana initiatives in Ohio. Nestor also expressed the opinion that the Toledo measure could help push the entire state towards considering legalization.[5] He said:
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We're really just trying to get to the root of a lot of social ills by saying that Toledo is ready, that Toledo will be the first major city in this state to step forward and say we think that it's time for the laws to change. That will help the movement for a review of marijuana laws tremendously.[3] |
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| —Sean Nestor[5] | ||
NORML also backed an initiative in Nashville, Tennessee, in 2015. This effort failed to reach the ballot, however.
Another example of a statewide group that backed a local marijuana legalization initiative is Kansas For Change, which supported an initiative to legalize marijuana in Wichita, Kansas. Voters approved the initiative, but it was challenged in court based on alleged conflict with state law.
On the other side of the issue, there are many who are hoping to combat marijuana legalization on both the statewide and local level. Two anti-marijuana initiatives were voted on in Alaskan cities in 2015. Daniel Hamm and Sally Pollen, the president and an officer of the Alaskan Republican Assembly, supported initiatives to ban marijuana sales in Palmer and Houston and backed an initiative campaign in Matanuska-Susitna Borough that was pushed back to the 2016 election..
Fracking
- See also: Local fracking on the ballot and Fracking
2015
Ohio
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund (CELDF) backed efforts by many local groups in Ohio to campaign for initiatives to either establish or amend local county and city charters to include a "community bill of rights." According to the loose template established by the CELDF, the measures were designed to establish the rights of the people to a clean, clear and unpolluted natural environment and to local control over issues such as fracking. Moreover, the bill of rights measures generally included a provision granting natural ecosystems the rights to exist and thrive and giving community residents legal standing to defend these rights in court. Proponents of the initiatives, who targeted the election on November 3, 2015, also proposed prohibitions against fracking and other oil and gas extraction methods as a means to protecting these rights. Bill of rights initiatives were proposed in the following locations:
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Ultimately, the initiative county charters were rejected by Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted (R) and again by the Ohio Supreme Court when Husted's rejection was challenged by initiative petitioners.[6]
Petitioners behind the initiative proposed in Columbus failed to qualify the measure for the ballot in 2015, but announced that they might try again in 2016.
Minimum wage
- See also: Local wages and pay on the ballot
Increasing the minimum wage is another national issue that is being pushed on the local level through ballot measures, often with the support of statewide or national organizations such as 15 Now, the Working Families Party and Jobs with Justice.
2016
California
In 2015, the Los Angeles Workers Assembly filed the paperwork necessary to start circulating an initiative to raise the city's minimum wage to $15 per hour. Petitioners did not qualify the measure for the ballot in 2015, but they could still collect signatures to put the initiative before Los Angeles voters in 2016. One of two competing statewide $15 per hour minimum wage initiatives may make the city measure unnecessary if put on the ballot and approved in November 2016.
Washington, D.C.
The D.C. chapter of the Working Families Party collected enough signatures to qualify a $15 per hour minimum wage initiative for the ballot in the nation's capital. The minimum wage increase was scheduled to go before voters on November 8, 2016, but Harry Wingo, president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, filed a lawsuit against the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics seeking an injunction to keep the initiative off the ballot. The lawsuit claimed that the petition language's description of the initiative as a proposal to "gradually increase" the city's minimum wage was misleading. The lawsuit also pointed out that the terms of all three members of the city's board of elections had expired before certifying this initiative for the ballot, arguing that this invalidated the initiative. The lawsuit indirectly questioned the validity of 2015 mayoral and city council elections since the board of elections certified the results for these races after their terms had expired.
2012-2015
Minimum wage reform has been proposed, backed or at least supported by statewide and national groups in the cities listed below. Opponents of higher minimum wages, often including restaurant and service industry associations and chambers of commerce, have fought back.
LGBT issues
- See also: Local LGBT issues on the ballot
2016
Florida
The issue of legal protection for members of the LGBT community from discrimination surfaced in Jacksonville, Florida, in late 2015 and early in 2016. A contingent on the council, as well as a vocal group of city pastors, are fighting to put the issue before voters and have threatened a veto referendum petition campaign if the city council approves an ordinance themselves. City Councilman Tommy Hazouri pushed for the council to pass the proposal without consulting voters, saying, "There's a reason that civil rights measures and issues of human rights aren't voted on by the majority. Often these are issues that impact the minority. It's not appropriate to have the majority vote on the rights of the minority."[7]
2015
Florida
An LGBT anti-discrimination referendum in Houston, Texas, which was known as the "HERO ordinance," was supported by Equality Texas, Freedom For All Americans and the Human Rights Campaign. The ordinance was opposed by the Houston branch of the U.S. Pastor Council, which was responsible for putting the issue before voters through a veto referendum signature petition.
Matt McTighe, the campaign manager for Freedom for All Americans, said, “It [Proposition 1] has the potential to really show our continued momentum in the fourth largest city in the country, or potentially present a real hurdle for us as we look for more proactive non-discrimination efforts in states that are largely in the South, the Midwest, where we’re looking for places to advance non-discrimination ordinances like what was at the city level in Houston.”[8]
Law enforcement
- See also: Local law enforcement on the ballot
2016
Missouri
Following the shooting of Michael Brown in 2015, a national movement to hold police officers more accountable was ignited. In Ferguson, Missouri, a group of activists launched a signature campaign to put an initiative designed to require police officers to wear body cameras on the city's election ballot in 2016. The group is receiving advice and support from the Liberty Initiative Fund, a national advocacy group based in Virginia.[9]
Footnotes
- ↑ KCUR, "Kansas City Marijuana Reformers Working Toward Decriminalization," January 24, 2016
- ↑ Denver NORML, "Home," accessed February 1, 2016
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ The Morning Sun, "Oak Park, Hazel Park among cities statewide targeted for pot decriminalization," March 18, 2014
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Toledo News Now, "Only on 11: Pot decriminalization to appear on Toledo primary ballot," July 13, 2015
- ↑ Ohio.com, "Local groups sue Husted over invalidating Nov. 3 charter initiatives in Medina, Fulton and Athens counties," August 20, 2015
- ↑ News4Jax, "Pastors want public vote on HRO amendment," December 10, 2015
- ↑ Washington Blade, "Houston is next battle in LGBT non-discrimination fight," September 16, 2015
- ↑ USA Today, "Ferguson residents petition for police body camera rules," June 23, 2015
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