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    Who are the NERD fund donors Mr Snyder?

    Raise the curtain.

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    I concur (5.00 / 1) (#3)
    by JGillman on Mon Nov 12, 2012 at 07:24:36 AM EST
    the system works.

    as uncomfortable as it becomes for SOME interests, it needs to remain available.  Added encumbrances takes it further from average grass roots folks.

    Parent

    I disagree: (none / 0) (#4)
    by Kevin Rex Heine on Mon Nov 12, 2012 at 12:05:43 PM EST
    First, you'll never get the money out of the system, no matter what you do.  Second, citizen-initiated anything is a core plank in the Progressive Party platform, said party being absorbed by the Republican Party as a way to get Herbert Hoover elected.  (A bullet-point summary of the platform is available here.)  We're a republic for a reason; the Founding Fathers knew the dangers of direct democracy.

    Now, the citizen initiative is so thoroughly ingrained into Michigan's political culture that you're not going to get rid of it anytime in this generation.  But what you can do is raise the bar high enough that we keep most of the stupidity off the ballot.  In order to meet the county-by-county  distribution benchmark, signature gatherers are actually going to have to go to Gogebic, Keeweenaw, Berrien, Huron, and Presque Isle to find out what the electorate there thinks, instead of just focusing on the area between I-69 and Lake Erie.  The amount of prep time needed to successfully execute a citizen initiative under this benchmark almost guarantees that it won't stay below the radar, that a discussion of the merits of the proposal will be well underway before the signature gathering even starts.

    I also submit that the need to meet a county-by-county benchmark will force even the moneyed interest to invest in a statewide infrastructure, instead of relying on ambitious homeless people in the state's major metropolitan areas.

    Parent

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