History
The name Wisconsin is practically synonymous with Progressivism, yet
this state has never had a statewide initiative and referendum process.
Indeed, it is one of only three states where voters turned down their
opportunity to get it (Texas and Rhode Island are the others). The
circumstances were as follows.
In 1907 Lieutenant Governor W. D. Connor and State Senator W. D.
Brazeau took up the cause and secured approval in the state senate by a
19 to 5 vote, but lost in the lower house. The Progressive reformers had
been in power since 1900 and had enacted a host of reforms, but I&R was
apparently not a priority.
Any state constitutional amendment needed to pass both houses by a
three-fifths majority in two successive sessions of the legislature, with an
election in between. Only then, after two years or more, could it be put
on the ballot for ratification by the voters. The I&R amendment finally
passed both houses in the 1911-1912 legislature with the support of
Governor Francis E. McGovern, U.S. Senator Robert M. La Follette and his
Progressive Republican followers, and the state’s Socialists. It passed again
in the 1913-1914 legislature, and was placed on the November 1914
ballot.
After 13 years in power, the Progressives had become overconfident.
In the 1913 legislature, they passed a series of big tax increases to finance
an ambitious public works program, as well as giving final approval to a
constitutional amendment raising their salaries. This amendment went on
the November 1914 ballot along with the I&R amendment and eight
others, including one to allow recall of all state elected officers except
judges.
After paying the higher taxes in 1914, the voters had had their fill of the
liberal reformers and all their works. The amendments on the 1914 ballot
offered an easy target for the voters’ wrath. Leading candidates of both
major parties damned all the amendments, without informing voters that
the initiative, referendum, and recall amendments offered just the
mechanism they needed to block legislation they deplored. The state
Democratic convention that year disapproved I&R in its platform, and
Republican gubernatorial candidate Emmanuel L. Phillipp also urged
voters to reject I&R.
On Election Day, all 10 amendments were defeated overwhelmingly.
The voters discriminated hardly at all between them: the least popular
amendments won 26 percent approval; the most popular, 38 percent.
The I&R amendment and the recall amendment were approved by 36
percent of the voters. Because they decided to vote “no” on everything,
Wisconsin voters in 1914 denied themselves the right to vote on issues of
their choice.
Excerpted from the Initiative & Referendum Almanac by M. Dane Waters.