Propositions Roundup

By Michelle Boorstein, Associated Press Writer

In a relatively sleepy ballot measure season, Washington state provides a
wakeup call.

Voters there will contemplate a particularly lively ballot Tuesday, with
proposals to ban workplace discrimination against gays, further restrict
gun ownership, legalize marijuana for medicinal use and dramatically expand
choice of doctors in health plans.

It's an offyear election, with only 43 statewide propositions in nine
states. Nevertheless, the questions on state and local ballots tackle meaty
issues, including assisted suicide in Oregon, affirmative action in
Houston, bilingual education in Orange, Calif., and voting rights for the
mentally ill in Maine.

Sports arenas figure on ballots in two states. Voters in 13 counties
surrounding Pittsburgh are being asked to ante up an extra halfcent per
salestax dollar to build separate stadiums for the baseball Pirates and
football Steelers. But Minneapolis, residents wary of campaigns to build
private arenas with public dollars hope for passage of a proposition that
would require public approval of any plan to spend more than $10 million on
a stadium.

The Navajo Nation, after watching other tribes rake in rich gambling
profits, will decide whether to build casinos on the nation's largest
reservation. And Mainers are considering, for the second year in a row,
strict limits on clearcutting in their vast forests.

Of the 43 statewide propositions, just seven were put there by voters a
pittance compared to last year's recordsetting 90 citizen initiatives. The
rest are the result of legislative action or constitutional mandate. New
York, for example, requires that voters be asked every 20 years whether
they want to call a convention to change the state constitution. This is
one of those years.

Offyear elections can produce strange results, say some legislative
experts, because so few people go the polls. On the other hand, some
initiative authors aim for off years in hopes of attracting a certain kind
of voter, says Ken Mulligan, research director at Free Congress Foundation,
a Washingtonbased think tank.

"It's hard to draw generalizations, but the people who turn out on off
years are the more committed voters, wealthier, more upscale," he says.
"They have more sense of civic commitment. They have jobs that allow them
to leave to vote. They have a higher education."

Interest in the clearcutting proposition is intense in Maine, a state where
logging is a vital part of the economy and forests cover 90 percent of the
state. The measure has drawn $1.5 million in support, mostly from the paper
industry, a barrage of radio and television ads from both sides and the
formation of 13 political action committees.

Last year's ballot featured three separate forest management plans,
including an outright clearcutting ban, but none gained a majority. The
timber industry got behind this single resurrected proposition, hoping to
avoid stricter restrictions down the road.

In Washington, where one in five people own guns, voters will decide
whether gunowners must pass an exam or take a safety course to get licenses
and whether guns must be sold with trigger locks. The National Rifle
Association and other gun rights groups are traveling the state, warning
that proponents' hidden agenda is to eventually register and confiscate all
handguns.

Other propositions on the Washington ballot:

Outlaw job discrimination against homosexuals. Gay rights advocates hope
the measure staves off accusations that they want special rights by
specifically stating it does not require preferential treatment, quotas or
partner benefits. If the measure passes, Washington would become the 12th
state to bar such discrimination.

Legalize marijuana, heroin and LSD for medical use. Opponents warn the
measure is a covert first step toward acrosstheboard legalization.
Similar measures passed in Arizona and California last year, although
Arizona legislators gutted theirs.

Permit patients to keep their doctors even if they switch jobs or health
plans. Opponents say the costs of such "choice" would drive up already
steep insurance costs.

Choice of a different kind is on the ballot in neighboring Oregon, where
voters in 1994 passed the nation's only law allowing assisted suicide. This
time, a proposition seeks to repeal the law, which has been stalled in
court and never implemented. Legislators put the repeal measure on the
ballot, pressured by the Roman Catholic church and antiabortion groups,
but polls show the same narrow support for assisted suicide that existed
three years ago.

A proposition on Houston's ballot would end its 13yearold affirmative
action program, which requires city contractors to try to give 20 percent
of their work to women and minorities. Public opinion appears to be running
against the measure, and four of five leading mayoral candidates say they
oppose it.

Bilingual education is splitting residents of Orange, Calif., where schools
got a oneyear exemption from a state requirement that nonEnglishspeaking
students be taught in their native language. On Tuesday, voters will asked
whether they want to resume bilingual education, though it's simply an
"advisory" vote that officials can ignore.

Voters in tiny Castlewood, Va., meanwhile, will decide whether to vote the
town and the attendant town taxes out of existence.

In Cincinnati, zoo officials have threatened to ship off its four Asian
elephants, one of them pregnant, if voters reject a $52 million tax levy
for a new Elephant House and parking lot. And the drink 'til dawn
reputation of seashore resort Wildwood, N.J., is at stake as voters
consider whether to roll back tavern closing hours, to 3 a.m. from 5 a.m.