History
The effort for I&R in Colorado was started by Dr. Persifor M. Cooke of
Denver in the mid-1890s. As secretary and president of the Colorado
Direct Legislation League, Cooke and the constitutional lawyer J. Warner
Mills of Denver fought for I&R from 1900 until 1910, when Governor John F.
Shafroth called a special session of the legislature to consider the issue.
The constitutional amendments that were passed provided for initiative,
referendum, and recall on both state and local levels.
Coloradans set their state’s record for initiative use the first year it was
available, in 1912, by putting 22 initiatives and 6 popular referendums on
the ballot. Eight of the initiatives passed and challenges to legislatively
approved laws were sustained in 5 of the 6 cases. Among these were
laws or amendments establishing an eight-hour work day for workers
employed in “underground mines, smelters, mills and coke ovens”; giving
women workers an eight-hour day; providing pensions for orphans and for
widows with children; establishing juvenile courts in major cities and
counties; and granting home rule to cities and towns.
Over the years Colorado voters proved sympathetic to the needs of
the aged and infirm, approving initiatives providing for the treatment of
mental illness in 1916 and 1920, relief for blind adults in 1918, pensions for
the aged and for indigent tuberculosis sufferers in 1936, and increased
pensions adjusted for inflation in 1956. Colorado voters also remained
friendly to organized labor, approving an initiative statute changing the
workmen’s compensation law to benefit employees in 1936 and defeating
an employer-backed “Right to Work” initiative in 1958.
In the early 1970s, Coloradans passed environmentalist-backed
initiatives to keep the Winter Olympics from being held in their state (1972)
and prohibit underground nuclear explosions except with prior voter
approval (1974). Richard Lamm, an obscure state legislator when he
sponsored the anti-Olympics initiative, gained sufficient prestige from his
leadership of this campaign to later win election as governor.
In 1984 Colorado became the first state to pass an initiative banning
the use of state funds for abortion (the second was Arkansas, in 1988).
Voters approved the measure by a single percentage point. Less
controversial and more popular was the 1984 “Motor Voter” initiative,
which set up a system of voter registration at driver’s licensing bureaus. This
highly successful program increased the number of registered voters in
Colorado by 12.4 percent in the 15 months from July 1985 to October
1986.
Hostility to the initiative process by the political establishment
manifested itself in the 1976 election with a “No on Everything” campaign
that outspent proponents with over 91% of all funds expended. The
election was followed by a series of legislative efforts to restrict use of the
initiative. Notorious for exceeding the ”reasonable regulation” guideline,
Federal Courts have struck down more of Colorado initiative restrictions
than any other state. Those most famous are Meyer v. Grant in 1986 and
Buckley v. ACLF in 1999 – both went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Colorado is recognized for having spawned the Term Limits movement
in 1990. Other states had term limits initiative in 1990 and in previous years.
State Senator Terry Considine, frustrated that his peers would not consider
his term limits bill, became an activist and drove the term limits law to
fruition with a 71% favorable vote. Colorado’s initiative was unique in that
it also sought to limit members of Congress. Large numbers of states
approved term limits for members of Congress in subsequent elections.
Colorado passed additional term limits initiatives in 1994, 1996, and 1998.
Coloradans would have preferred that their elected officials exercise
self-restraint with taxation. Tax limit initiatives succeeded in making it to
the ballot in 1966, 1972, 1976, 1978, 1986, 1988, 1990, and 1992, but failed
at the ballot box until 1992. The 1992 effort sponsored by tax activist Doug
Bruce and dubbed the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR), helped to revitalize
the lagging taxpayer revolt begun in 1978 when Proposition 13 had been
approved in California.
Recent use of the initiative peaked in 1992 with 10 initiatives on the
ballot. Since 1992, use has been flat with a slight downward trend to 6 in
2000. Average is 8 per 2 year election cycle over the high use decade of
the 1990s. Initiatives are blamed for long ballots, yet state issues referred
to the ballot by the General Assembly generally equal the number of
initiatives. Other issues referred to the ballot by local governments result in
several times more referred measures than initiatives.
Excerpted from the Initiative & Referendum Almanac by M. Dane Waters.