Citizens in Charge

The Citizens in Charge Foundation page on the history of ballot initiative & referendum in New Jersey begins:

It is ironic that New Jersey, the state where the national initiative and
referendum movement originated, never adopted provisions for I&R.
Certainly it was not for lack of enthusiasm among New Jersey’s I&R
supporters…

As Foundation President Paul Jacob notes in one of his recent Common Sense daily columns, the benefits of initiative & referendum could be coming to the Garden State after more than a century:

[Candidate for Governor Chris] Christie believes voters need the power of ballot initiatives. But earlier this year he said, “I hesitated about proposing initiative and referendum because my party had been such a failure on initiative and referendum ten years ago …”

Republicans gained a majority in both legislative chambers in part on a promise to enact a statewide initiative. Once in power, Republicans took a dive.

Christie pledges to be different, and to campaign with shoe leather: “I will travel around the state to publicly campaign for [initiative and referendum] and try to get the citizens to put pressure on their legislators to vote for this.”

Bringing the power of initiative & referendum to any state that doesn’t have it is always an uphill battle against entrenched politicians and special interests. We don’t know if Mr. Christie will make it to the Governor’s office, that is for the voters to decide, but we are always glad to see someone taking up the cause of citizen-led government.