Protect your initiative rights

Democrats completely control Olympia. As Associated Press reporter David Ammons wrote in a recent column, "Democrats will have an iron grip on state government this winter, with the biggest House and Senate majorities in a generation and an activist Democratic governor as a partner."

Until the 2008 election, the only check and balance on their unrestrained power is the citizens' initiative process.

What will the Democrats' top legislative priority be in the next session? Consolidate their power by strangling the citizens' initiative process with new laws and endless lawsuits.

This effort has already begun.

The most powerful special-interest groups in Washington had a private meeting shortly after the election at the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce to form a new anti-initiative group — they've given it the Orwellian name, "Committee for Initiative Accountability." The CIA's mission is to push for a litany of new anti-initiative laws. Here're two:

• Release the names and addresses of people who've signed an initiative petition. Currently, the secretary of state protects voters' privacy and is solely responsible for verifying voter signatures. The new CIA wants access to those names to disqualify (and thus disenfranchise) as many voters who sign as possible to keep certain initiatives off the ballot. The potential for abuse and coercion is obvious: How'd you like the CIA visiting you at your home or office to verify your support for initiative XYZ? People who sign a petition have a right to privacy and shouldn't be subjected to harassment or intimidation.

• Require people who ask voters to sign petitions to first register with the secretary of state. (Sex offenders must register with the state, why not citizens who exercise their First Amendment rights?!) The CIA wants to know who's gathering signatures so it can conduct criminal background checks on them. Active, engaged citizens shouldn't be stigmatized like sex offenders or subjected to government investigation; they should be allowed to exercise their political free-speech rights without fear of retaliation.

Now, before you scoff and say these appear to be illegal and/or unconstitutional, you need to understand that challenging a law in court, even a slam-dunk illegal law, is costly and time-consuming. And while the case is pending in the courts, often for years, the citizens have no choice but to comply with the illegal law.

It's already happening. The 2005 Legislature passed a supposedly innocuous "reform" that has predictably metastasized into a burdensome, litigation-laden law. The legislation said that people who gather signatures ought to sign the back of the initiative petition. But the law was vague and didn't explicitly require it. Opinions varied on whether or how to comply. Special-interest groups filed lawsuits, subpoenas were issued and depositions were taken — followed by motions to quash, summary judgments, delays, counterclaims and appeals. It has been more than a year and it's still not resolved.

The outcome of a straight up-or-down vote of the people on the right to initiative is certain: We'd never vote to get rid of it.

The powerful special-interest groups at the CIA know this. That's why they shun Seattle Sen. Ken Jacobsen's honest bill to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to completely repeal the initiative process. Instead, CIA's devious alternative strategy is to disingenuously proclaim its support for the initiative process but to pass new laws, even unconstitutional ones, to strangle the ability of citizens to gather signatures from the voters. The CIA knows that stopping signature-gathering kills the initiative process.

Since 1914, the initiative process has been self-regulated by the people: No initiative gets on the ballot unless the people sign petitions, and no initiative becomes law unless the people vote for it.

During our state's entire 92-year history of initiatives, only 79 citizen-sponsored initiatives to the people have become law. But during that same time, the Legislature has passed tens of thousands of laws, rules and regulations. Although limited, the initiative process provides the citizens with a critical check and balance on governmental power.

When it comes to initiatives, no group, no party, no ideology has control over the voters. That's why politicians, and the special-interest groups that fund them, want to regulate and litigate the initiative process to death.

A well-organized legislative jihad against the citizens' initiative process is assured in the upcoming session. Not with an honest frontal attack, but with a sneaky, underhanded, regulate-to-death legislation and litigation effort.

We ask all of you to join us in opposing this blatant power grab. The people's right to participate should not be taken away.

Tim Eyman has co-sponsored several initiatives over the years and is co-sponsoring the Taxpayer Protection Initiative in 2007, www.VotersWantMore-Choices.com, 425-493-8707.