Citizens in Charge

Last Sunday the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ran an editorial blatantly attacking the citizens and their powers of local direct initiative and recall. My response, which is copied below to the ridiculous claims of the Journal-Sentinel were published in today’s edition.

Recalls, Direct Legislation Are Vital

The Journal Sentinel Editorial board could not be more wrong in its Oct. 25 editorial that calls for limiting direct legislation and recall elections (“State should limit direct legislation”).

In fact, just the opposite should be happening. The state Legislature should be expanding the rights of citizens to engage in the initiative and referendum, or I&R, process.

Ward Connerly, chairman of the American Civil Rights Coalition, said: “There is nothing more sacred to a free people than the right to govern themselves and take matters into their own hands when their elected officials have failed them.” He was right. Virtually every day in Wisconsin, we see elected officials whose spending or ethics are out of control.

In most of those cases, their colleagues choose to sit by and do nothing. This is where recalls and the I&R process come into play. These procedures, which have been around for decades, allow people to take back control of their government when that government has failed them.

The editorial makes the argument that “Wisconsin voters have had the right to go over the heads of their local governments for more than a century.” This makes it sound as though the people work for the government, not the other way around.

The time is long past to wait for the next election. Impeachment is rarely used, and most incumbents, usually more than 90%, are easily re-elected, no matter how bad a representative they may have been.

Both recall and the I&R process are self-limiting. Contrary to what the editorial claimed, neither of these procedures are easy. They involve convincing citizens to take time away from the other important things in their lives to try to collect hundreds or thousands of signatures from their fellow citizens.

Even if the signature collection effort is successful, there are the inevitable legal challenges, which can be very costly to either side. Even if the petitions pass muster, there is still the election process because the signatures alone do not remove an official from office and they don’t implement what the I&R process calls for. This can take months to accomplish.

Is it worth it? I think most people who have been through it would say that it is, and given the chance to do it again, most would jump at the chance. Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, said it best: “One big difference between initiatives and elected representatives is that initiatives do not change their minds once you vote them in.”

Orville Seymer is the Citizens in Charge Foundation Wisconsin Citizen State Coordinator.