Citizens in Charge

John Hickenlooper, Scott McInnis and Dan Maes are all currently running for governor in Colorado. Hickenlooper is the current Democrat Mayor of Denver, McInnis is a former Republican member of Congress from Colorado, and Maes is a business manager who is also running on the Republican ticket.

Yesterday all three were at gubernatorial candidate forum and the topic of ballot initiatives and petition rights came up. Here is what they had to say:

But one query that did get to both Republicans (Maes and McInnis) and the Democrat (Hickenlooper) was how they felt about petition reform in the wake of the upcoming Amendments 60 and 61 and Proposition 101.

For those who haven’t been following them, the three measures would reduce property taxes, nearly eliminate auto registration fees and ban the state from borrowing money under any circumstances. And they’d eliminate 73,000 private- and public-sector jobs, according to an analysis by the budget director for former Gov. Bill Owens.

The Denver mayor (Hickenlooper) and the former congressman (McInnis) agreed that they oppose the three measures as being overreaching. Maes, an Evergreen businessman, supports Amendment 60, which would roll back local school property taxes.

However, when asked whether they would support reform of Colorado’s petition laws, which are considered the easiest of any state in the country to get a measure on the ballot, McInnis said he would not, while Hickenlooper was an enthusiastic “yes.”

Hickenlooper noted that while Colorado requires that initiative petitioners get a total of signatures equal to 5 percent of the number of people who voted in the most recent secretary of state’s race, other states require 10 percent of the total of the most recent presidential election. That higher total is more reasonable, especially because instability in state laws scares away businesses that are considering relocating to the state, he said.

“Businesses don’t want to come here if they think the state Constitution is going to get turned upside down every couple of years,” the mayor said.

But McInnis said the reason the measures were put on the ballot this year is that voters have lost faith in the government and want to take matters into their own hands. The state can not attempt to make it harder to petition onto the ballot until it gets some of its credibility back, he said.

“Can you go and change that process? Not today,” McInnis said. “The people who serve in government are going to have to prove again they’re worthy of the people’s trust before they’ll give up rights,”

Maes, meanwhile, said that he wouldn’t support reform at any time.

“I really want people to have influence in their government,” he said. “If they don’t see that their legislators are responding to them, they should have the right to do something about that … You should have the right to initiate citizen legislation.”

Hickenlooper wants to make it harder for Colorado citizens to have any form of direct influence on their government. Both McInnis and Maes however support leaving the requirements where they are at, not making things more difficult for Colorado citizens.

Notice that both Hickenlooper and McInnis do not support the current ballot initiatives that are before the voters. However, even though McInnis doesn’t like what is on the ballot for voters this fall, that does not lead him to want to make the process more difficult for citizens. Just because he isn’t getting his way, he’s not taking away the rights of Colorado citizens. That is a very commendable position, and something others should take note of.

Hickenlooper on the other hand? He doesn’t like what the citizens have put on the ballot so he has decided that he’s going to take his toys and go home, because he doesn’t think the other kids playing nicely.

In a 180 turn from Hickenlooper’s position, candidate Dan Maes hits the nail on the head saying, “I really want people to have influence in their government,” he said. “If they don’t see that their legislators are responding to them, they should have the right to do something about that … You should have the right to initiate citizen legislation.”

Bingo.