Lawmakers and members of the Voter Initiative Alliance announce yesterday that more than 20,000 voters have signed a petition to get the proposal on the November ballot.

01:00 AM EST on Wednesday, March 8, 2006

BY KATHERINE GREGG
Journal State House Bureau

PROVIDENCE -- Governor Carcieri's words filled the State House rotunda yesterday: "Let the people decide."

But Carcieri was not talking about the proposed West Warwick casino which, he again yesterday said, does not belong on the ballot because "it is unconstitutional."

He was talking about the years' long drive by a group that now calls itself the Voter Initiative Alliance, to give both ordinary citizens -- and big-monied interest groups -- the power to get proposed laws and constitutional amendments on the ballot, by petition, without having to go through the General Assembly.

Yesterday's State House news conference was aimed at drawing attention to the 20,000-plus signatures that supporters said they had gathered on petitions urging legislative leaders to allow a November vote on voter initiative.

"20,700 and climbing," a jubilant Sandra Thompson shouted onto the microphone. "We're on a roll," said the one-time school teacher in New Jersey and Minnesota now living in East Greenwich.

The organizers, who include former Supreme Court Justice Robert Flanders, describe the alliance -- which has not yet registered its own lobbyists -- as bipartisan.

They singled out for mention several of the Democratic cosponsors, including Rep. Roger Picard in the House, and Senators Marc Cote, J. Michael Lenihan, Leonidas Raptakis and James Sheehan.

But Republican Carcieri and Kernan "Kerry" King, the GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, took prominent places up front, alongside the House GOP caucus. Carcieri suggested voter initiative be used as a litmus test for candidates, while former state Rep. Rodney Driver, a frequent candidate for Congress, held high a sign that said: "Trust the People."

Most of the commentary yesterday -- and on the voterinitiative.org Web site -- centered on the suggested need for a way to end-run legislators who "do not represent the interests of the citizens" because they are in the thrall of "special interests."

"I think we all know who that probably is," said Thompson. "I think we have unions now who definitively have a big influence over our General Assembly. What I am saying is: Who represents the people?

Added Cote: "We all recognize and respect the right of workers to organize . . . and lobby state government for labor laws they deem in their best interest."

"We're here to today to pursue our goal of creating a level playing field," said Cote. "Twenty-four other states, including Massachusetts, have and enjoy this constitutional right. The people of Rhode Island deserve no less."

But as nice as the notion of power to the people may sound, Rep. John Patrick Shanley Jr., D-South Kingstown, the designated House spokesman, said voter initiative actually "empowers the people with money to drive a campaign." He gave as examples:

The $650,000 that he said multimillionaire software developer Ron Utz contributed to a $976,000 campaign, in California, "to mandate the exclusive use of the English language" in schools after one-year immersion classes.

The $10-million plus that "Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen, the seventh richest man in the world, spent . . . to promote an initiative allowing the state of Washington to fund what is now Seattle's Qwest Field. Paul Allen just happens to own the Seattle Seahawks, who play there."

Flanders said he envisioned use of voter initiative to expand public financing of elections. Thompson, the petition-drive coordinator, said she envisioned a tax cap similar to Massachusetts' Proposition 2 1/2.

But Shanley said a study, at Brigham Young University, found that "government reform and tax measures" comprised about half of 1,700 such ballot proposals nationwide, with "many" aimed at raising -- not lowering revenues. Others dealt with land use, business regulation and "public morality," such as abortion, same-sex marriage, assisted suicide and gambling.

While individual campaign contributions are capped at $1,000, George Nee, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, said initiative campaigns provide an opening for "unlimited money and unlimited corporate contributions and I think that is a really, really dangerous thing."

It also "provides a real threat, I believe, to civil liberties and human rights, notwithstanding all of their efforts to try to prevent that," Nee said.

kgregg@projo.com / (401) 277-7078