Legislature looking at citizen-created law

By RICHARD HORN /Senior Staff Writer

Texans who feel elected leaders have mucked things up beyond hope may soon have a chance to do better themselves.

For the first time, an initiative and referendum law is given a fighting chance of passage through the Texas Legislature this year.

If it does, and if voters then approve a constitutional amendment in the fall, Texans would join citizens in 24 other states in being able to propose their own laws, with potential topics ranging from term limits and campaign finance to affirmative action and regulation of HMOs.

"It's an issue of freedom," said Mike Ford of Austin, one of the leaders in the battle. "It's about the only tool I know of for the de-concentration of power. With the initiative you can say to elected leaders, 'Now wait just a minute, you guys aren't a ruling class.' "

It's shaping up as a lively fight, with both sides dispensing civics lectures while accusing each other of being willing toadies for rich special interests.

Gov. George W. Bush backs initiative and referendum, though he's not spending political capital promoting it, Ford said. And Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock is giving supporters a chance; he appointed several strong I&R enthusiasts, including area Sen. Tom Haywood, to an interim Senate committee that recommended approval of the plan now on the table.

Ford, who heads Texans for Initiative and Referendum, isn't making bold promises about passage this session. But he believes if it gets through the House and Senate, the popular idea is almost assured of passage at the polls. And if doesn't pass the Legislature this time, it will next time, he warned.

And then political life in Texas would become very different, though it will not be the California-style terror opponents claim, he said.

While new Republican strength in the Texas Senate will help matters, Ford is quick to point out I&R isn't truly a GOP-vs.-Democrat issue. It's a fight over power, and Republicans have latched onto the initiative because they've been the outsiders.

"If Republicans had been in charge for 100 years," Ford said last week, "it would be Democrats who would be saying we need this and it would be Republicans asking, 'Why?' It really is about who's in control versus who's not in control."

And many of those in control - the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the newspaper editorial boards - are going to struggle against it, he said.

"We're going to have to hammer, be tough as nails," Ford said. Hunter's second thoughts

One of the leading opponents, Shirley Spellerberg of Texas Eagle Forum, plans to hammer back just as hard, doing all she can to make sure it doesn't muster the two-thirds votes in needs in both chambers. She hopes it won't even make it out of committee.

"When I get through explaining the reasoning behind opposition to it, I think that among the legislators you'll see a big change in mind among those who've been for it," she said. "It's a dangerous idea."

She argues Texans aren't nearly involved enough in the government that exists. Why, she asks, create a new tool that will allow special interests to spend enormous sums on media buys to manipulate public opinion?

"I think the reason big professional lobbyists succeed now is because the citizens fail to hold their elected officials' feet to the fire," she said. "They go and vote and then that's their duty until the next election. They need to get more involved and make their representative form of government work."

State Rep. Bob Hunter of Abilene is one Republican who's having second thoughts after years of support for the general concept of initiative and referendum.

"We have learned far more now about what has happened in states like California, and it's pretty scary," Hunter said.

Instead of being a boon to the grass-roots citizens, Hunter said, evidence shows special interests have taken over and fueled many of the propositions, hired people to complete the necessary petitions and then shelled out huge sums to advertise for passage.

"It is not the panacea we would think," Hunter said. "A lot of people are taking pause to really look at problems. There have been some pretty dire consequences."

But Haywood and fellow Republican Sen. Troy Fraser said Texas has learned from those mistakes and has the opportunity to pass a measure that will work well here.

Haywood also dismisses arguments that people elect representatives to do the job for them and don't need initiative and referendum.

"That's the same excuse people give for being opposed to term limits," he said. "This is a similar cop-out in my view. There are many issues people don't feel they have the stamina or ability to fight for because of special interest opposition." A matter of principle

Lobbyists and elected officials have silently kept a lid on I&R for years, supporters claim. If so, then one sign of its increased strength is the creation of organized opposition.

One of the most tireless critics is Spellerberg, the mayor of Corinth in Denton County and a Republican who's trying to stop her party from making I&R part of its dogma.

For one thing, she believes initiative and referendum would violate the Texas Bill of Rights, which the legislature has no authority to amend.

"If our legislators can bypass the Texas Bill of Rights in this case, then all our constitutional rights are at risk," she said.

Spellerberg concedes something good might pass through I&R on occasion, but the courts could still throw it out. Further, she said, initiative and referendum is an unnecessary and risky step that would flood voters with nonsense proposals and dilute the power voters have but don't use.

"It's far easier if I have only my one representative and my one state senator to express my opinion to rather than having their voices muted completely in a statewide referendum," she said.

Ford, a small-businessman who calls himself a "student of initiative and referendum," faxes around a point-by-point dispute of Spellerberg's claims.

"Shirley has read the federal and state constitutions, and she has frightened herself on this subject," he said. "She seems to think if somebody votes for her instead of her voting for herself, her constitutional rights will be protected. That's not what protects your constitutional rights."

He notes that 24 states have some form of initiative and referendum, most of them existing since the early 1900s. Those states, he said, have not sacrificed representative government, they've just given the people an additional tool.

Ford also disputes the notion that government is already open enough.

"You hear people say, 'We've got open hearings, what do we need I&R for?' " he said. "Well, that sounds plausible unless you've actually been <I>down<I> to an open hearing, and then you understand it is an insider game you get to watch for a little while."

Arguments that voters would be awash in foolish proposals don't fly with Ford, either. He lived in California for 31 years, he said, and was involved in I&R there. People were adept at sorting out the good from the bad, he argues.

"The proposals on the ballot were on more meaningful subjects than what the Legislature fooled around with," he said. "The (Texas) Legislature passes 1,100 new laws. Well, who in the hell asked for 1,100 new laws? What the hell are they? Nobody knows. Most of them are gifts of privilege to the insiders."

Spellerberg, who says the faxes Ford sends are full of errors, still acknowledges I&R's popularity among many in her own party, as well as the independent reform movement that's blossomed in recent years. That's why she knows she has her work cut out for her.

"We've all experienced so much frustration," she concedes, "but I think right principle is right and you don't change a republican form of government just because you think it may benefit you in the short run."