Who’s really attacking ‘direct democracy’?

Letter date: 
Friday, September 1, 2017
Letter publisher: 
The Register Guard
Letter author: 
Jerry Ritter
Letter body: 

State Rep. Phil Barnhart’s Aug. 28 polemic, “Rolling back initiative rules bad policy,” is rife with false accusations, inaccuracies and hypocrisy and begs a response.

Barnhart’s central theme is that allowing initiative petitioners to begin gathering signatures before a ballot title is established is bad policy. He has a point, but his argument ignores history — including factors that led Secretary of State Dennis Richardson to propose the change. And while Barnhart slams Richardson for meddling in the “direct democracy” process, he has repeatedly done so himself.

Ballot titles are frequently contested by those who oppose a proposal. This delays signature gathering, sometimes to the point of there being insufficient time to qualify a petition. It’s an effective “first strike” against a proposal with which one disagrees.

It’s also a tactic that has amounted to outright sabotage. A classic example was Measure 88 in 2014 to refer the Legislature’s ill-advised illegal immigrant driver card bill (Senate Bill 833) to the voters. Barnhart joined his fellow Democrats in supporting an 11th-hour underhanded political move called a “gut and stuff” (House Bill 4054) for the sole purpose of eviscerating the ballot title.

This was done in an attempt to defeat the whole intent of the measure. Never before had such action been taken to undermine a citizen referendum. Any legislator with a sense of the public pulse knew what the voters’ verdict on the driver card issue was likely to be.

Barnhart calls Richardson’s proposal a “cynical ploy.” That’s exactly one of the many unflattering terms used by newspaper editorial boards in condemning HB 4054. The Oregon Supreme Court eventually upheld the original ballot title and the voters overwhelmingly rejected SB 833.

Barnhart labels Oregonians For Immigration Reform a right-wing extremist group engaged in “a crusade against people of color.” That’s nonsense. OFIR wants America’s immigration laws to be enforced. Barnhart, by his actions, seems to disagree. OFIR’s membership comprises ordinary people from varied walks of life and political affiliations concerned about over­population, jobs and respect for the law.

Barnhart also claims that these groups “have repeatedly failed to qualify their ballot measures.” OFIR was the driving force behind Measure 88. Given the nearly 1 million voters who supported OFIR in soundly rejecting SB 833, Barnhart is way out of line with his “extremist” accusation.

More recently, Barnhart joined his fellow Democrats in passing House Bill 3464 this year to implement a second “sanctuary” law for illegal immigrants. The bill was introduced within a week after OFIR filed Initiative Petition 22 to allow voters to weigh in on Oregon’s existing sanctuary law, Oregon Revised Statute 181A.820. A frivolous “emergency” clause was attached to the bill to prevent another referendum. Are we to believe HB 3464 and its timing were purely coincidental?

In the wake of Measure 88, legislators began to take stronger actions to prevent citizen oversight of decisions that they know would likely be opposed by most voters. Accordingly, every illegal immigrant support measure since then has included an “emergency” clause. Barnhart has endorsed all of these.

Barnhart hammers Richardson’s proposal but voted “aye” on Senate Bill 229. This bill made major changes to current protocol and specifically targeted the referendum, now underway, of portions of the $550 million health care and medical tax package passed by the 2017 Legislature (House Bill 2391).

Because “emergency” clauses cannot be attached to tax measures, Barnhart and his fellow Democrats had to find another way to disrupt this particular referendum. This included moving the voting schedule to January instead of November and giving Democratic legislators majority power over the ballot title. This action was also criticized by editorial boards.

Barnhart claims to be “proud of our process of direct democracy,” which gives “everyday voters the ability to make or amend laws.” I believe he means that — as long as he agrees with a particular example of “direct democracy.”

He also states, “The process has been abused and exploited by self-serving politicians ... .” He should know. That abuse includes “gut and stuffs,” specifically targeted rule changes, bogus “emergency” clauses and direct legislative interdiction against citizen initiatives and referenda. Phil Barnhart has participated in all of the above.

Given the foregoing, I find Representative Barnhart’s accusations unjustified and galling.

Jerry Ritter of Springfield works on legislative issues for three statewide organizations, including Oregonians for Immigration Reform.