Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Oregon’s tarnished initiative: Start by cleaning up signature gathering
The Oregonian: If Ross Day, Kevin Mannix and others who have started a new petition-gathering firm are serious about distancing their campaigns from the sleazy, anything-goes leadership of Bill Sizemore and restoring trust in Oregon's initiative system, they should start by hiring signature gatherers who don't bring inch-thick criminal records to the job. I'm as eager as anyone to see Oregon's cherished initiative regain the luster and respect it had when citizens used it to write into law such things as an eight-hour work day, women's suffrage and the power to recall elected officials. And Day, Mannix, anti-tax crusader Russ Walker and others are absolutely right when they say the initiative has to be wrested away from Sizemore, who has done nothing in the past several years but bring discredit and disdain to Oregon's pioneering system of direct democracy. That's why it's disappointing to learn from the gleeful opponents of the anti-tax measures Day and the others are trying to bring to the ballot that to an extent the new initiative team is relying on many of the same signature gatherers who labored for Sizemore and bring lengthy criminal records with them. Defend Oregon, the union-backed group formed to fight the effort to overturn $733 million in tax increases approved by the Legislature, conducted criminal background checks on 39 paid petitioners and found that 13 of them had previous criminal convictions, including, in a couple cases, sexual abuse and forgery.
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