The Maine Legislature doesn’t like to be told what to do.
That’s because the Legislature would prefer not doing anything.
For a politician, doing stuff is risky. No matter how innocuous the action (a proclamation declaring National Don’t Do A Damn Thing Day), there are going to be people who won’t like it (probably the Alliance of Highly Motivated Doers). Once legislators are on record for or against, the folks annoyed with whatever they did are going to light up social media with nasty comments. Protesters will take to the streets. Prominent political figures will issue statements of condemnation.
You can understand why the Legislature might prefer to punt. (Although even that gutless step could bring down the wrath of the Anti-Punting League.)
Trouble is, nature abhors a vacuum. (It’s never been clear why nature singles out this particular household appliance for its disdain, although it may have something to do with lobbying by Citizens United In Opposition to Suction-Producing Devices.) Legislative reluctance to take a stand creates lots of vacuums. (Which may account for why so many voters believe the Legislature sucks.)
Increase the minimum wage? Your state senators and representatives meant to tinker with that, but you know how the hours slip by and suddenly it’s dinnertime.
Boost education funding? So complicated that it might take awhile. Like forever.
Draft a new energy policy? Jeez, you think that education thing is confusing. This is way worse.
Approve Medicaid expansion? Gosh, look what day it is. Time for adjournment.
In the absence of detectable legislative activity, special interests have stepped into the gap with sloppily worded petitions seeking to put ill-considered referendum questions on the ballot. While some critics of this process – notably Paul LePage, Maine’s Republican governor and mutant snapping turtle – have blamed this trend on liberals, the truth is conservatives have made use of the initiative process when circumstances suited them (eliminate the state income tax, repeal same-sex marriage). No part of the ideological spectrum is immune to the temptation to take their crusades directly to the voters.
And there’s nothing wrong with that. The drafters of our system of governance (known as representational indifference) wisely included the referendum mechanism in order to allow the people to take action when the Legislature found itself unable or – more likely – unwilling to do so.
But nothing stirs the sluggish blood of a hibernating elected official like the possibility they’re being rendered irrelevant. And thus the Legislature – bypassed in recent years on issues ranging from ranked-choice voting to marijuana legalization to casino gambling – is finally threatening to do something.
It wants to change the referendum process to make it more difficult for voters to consider issues the Legislature refuses to deal with (an idea endorsed by the Union Of Elected Officials Concerned That Somebody Else May Dare To Do What We Don’t Dare To Do). And make no mistake, this is a bipartisan blunder.
“I think the process has gotten out of hand,” Democratic Sen. Bill Diamond told the Bangor Daily News. “I think something has to be done about it.”
“This process needs to be changed,” commented Garrett Mason, Senate GOP leader, to Maine Public. “It is interfering with our elected job as representatives of the people.”
Several bills have been introduced in an effort to stop mere voters from considering issues their wise leaders have determined would best be addressed by ignoring them. They include a number of barriers to collecting the required signatures to get a question on the ballot, currently 10 percent of the votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election or just over 61,000 names of registered voters. These roadblocks include requiring at least some signatures from every state Senate district, requiring equal numbers of signers from each congressional district, outlawing initiatives that deal with hunting and fishing, and not allowing anyone whose name “sounds Muslim” to sign.
These are all stupid ideas (that last is not only stupid, but false), and legislators – if they were ever going to do anything – should reject them. Because there’s a simpler way to reduce the number of referendums:
The Legislature could do its job.
Sign my petition to make not doing anything the official job description of the Maine House and Senate by emailing aldiamon@hernihill.net.
“The legislature could do its job.” That’s a reckless suggestion, given Al’s description of the legislators and their works and days. A man whose house throngs with loquacious dogs should show more awareness of the proverbial wisdom that tells us to “let sleeping dogs lie.”
Good one, JOHN FRARY!
Referenda and the Peoples veto were added to the Maine Constitution 1907- 1909 by the Progressive movement. They were not part of the “drafters” (the first Gov. King with the advice of Thomas Jefferson) vision,
Jon R. — The Maine Constitution has had many drafters, from the early 19th century to recent times. They all count more or less equally.
John F. — Comparing my dogs to legislators is a stretch. My dogs are much better looking. But to address your point, leaving the Legislature to its self-induced coma solves nothing, since issues of public concern don’t go away. They just mutate into referenda that could have been avoided if our elected leaders paid attention to their constituents.
Cheers,
Al
Well Al, I have another suggestion for you. Keep the referendum requirements the same. Just require full disclosure of actual facts. Then make sure the facts are in fact true before being disseminated.
Steve L. — That’s already the law.
Cheers,
AD
Unless you believe that elections are manipulated by the connected and the wealthy, you must end up believing that the voters, and the non-voters, end up with the politicians/government they deserve. It’s not sufficient to say that politicians, Big Business, and/or the media lied to you, as you knew that possibility in advance, and you have a responsibility to try to learn the truth, and also not to give in to your own prejudices and ignore the truth. If you believe the manipulation version is true, then you have a responsibility to try to correct it, vs just throwing your hands in the air. If you (plural) don’t correct it, you have failed in that responsibility, and allowed the manipulators to win. Nobody said it was easy, all you can do is what you can do, and you probably can’t do it by yourself, but in the end, it’s pass or fail. As the old saying goes, Winners never quit, and Quitters never win. Illegitimati Non-Carborundum (Don’t Let The Bastards Grind You Down!)
AL, I don’t contest your point about your dogs superior pulchritude, but you have made the case that stirring the legislature out of its coma will necessarily and naturally produce a better result. Your description of that august body undercuts that hope.
We have an elected REPRESENTATIVE form of government. If you, as an elected person, do not want to make the tough decisions then you shouldn’t have run for or be in office. If you are more worried about being re-elected.. then you shouldn’t be in office.
Elected representatives not doing their job is the root cause of most non-mandated referenda.
Agree on some points. However, when the governor refuses to participate in negotiations ranging from solar to the bi-annual budget, it has increased apathy amongst legislators who don’t want to waste their time (or go out on a limb).
The governor’s refusal to issue the senior housing bonds- speaks to the core of the problem, falsely claiming that the bonds would be “placing the state in deeper debt and putting additional burden on the backs of Maine taxpayers.”
Let’s get some intellectual honesty back into the conversation- we don’t need a referendum for that.