INITIATIVE REFERENDUMS MAY PROVE THEIR WORTH

Wisconsin has no real tradition of initiative referendum voting - in which
citizens petition the state to place an issue on the ballot for
consideration.

While Badger State voters will occasionally be asked to pass judgment on a
bit of tinkering with the state constitution, they are not given the
opportunity to make laws directly, which voters in California, Maine,
Massachusetts and other states enjoy.

Wisconsin's rejection of the initiative referendum option has deep roots in
its political traditions. Though the initiative process is often portrayed
as a progressive innovation from turn-of-the-century days, Wisconsin
progressives never really embraced it. Their inherent distrust of corporate
power led them to worry that powerful interests would expend their enormous
resources to warp the political process in order to pass or defeat specific
measures.

In light of the obscene levels of special interest spending that are seen in
referendum fights in other states these days, those fears may have been
appropriate. Certainly, the tragic example of the defeat of California's
single-payer health care initiative by a health insurance outlay of roughly
$50 million suggests at least one threat posed when states put complex
issues to a popular vote in a time of unrestrained election spending.

Yet there are Wisconsin activists, with groups such as Democracy Unlimited,
who are diligently seeking to develop an initiative referendum system in
this state. And while a case can still be made for qualms regarding this
shift, recent developments in other states suggest that a great deal of good
can come of direct democracy.

On the issue of medical marijuana, for instance, voters have proven to be
far ahead of politicians. Despite opposition scare tactics of the worst
sort, voters in California, Arizona and Maine have now approved measures
that allow sick people to use marijuana as part of their treatment regime.

On campaign finance reform, a number of states have passed initiative
referendums that actually hold out the prospect of change. While Congress
and state legislatures continue to wrestle with this issue -- notably,
without success -- voters in states across the country have approved
sweeping reforms. Now that a federal judge has approved the Maine approach,
this movement should spread like political wildfire.

Hopefully, another sort of initiative effort will also spread rapidly. In
Massachusetts, a broad coalition of progressive activists has come together
to help collect 100,000 signatures to place on the November 2000 ballot a
measure that would guarantee universal health insurance coverage for all the
people of Massachusetts.

In the absence of a federal response to the health care crisis, grass-roots
activists in Massachusetts are taking the lead.

Perhaps the Massachusetts initiative will succumb to the same sort of
withering assault on health care reform that California experienced several
years ago. But if this effort survives the certain attacks from the
insurance industry to become the voter-instituted law of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, it will reshape the health care debate not just in that state
but nationally.

It might even make the case for Wisconsin's reconsideration of its
strictures against initiative referendums.