Change-Based Politics Bus Project fuels initiative action at political conference. BY CAITLIN BAGGOTT Another election year has careened around the bend and into sight. Is it 2006 already? In all probability, you've already opened missives from local candidates and stood in the rain outside your grocery store to pen your supporting signature for a statewide ballot initiative. Or, if you're me, you've scooted past the signature gatherers, mumbling some incomprehensible excuse and exhortation: "No time now. Urgent soymilk shortage at home! Think before you ink!" Through the initiative system, Oregonians drum up support for and pass into law anything from a constitutional amendment changing the state tax structure to a statutory law requiring the use of safety belts (both passed in1990). Since 1902, when Oregon was the first state in the nation to adopt direct citizen legislation, the good people of Oregon have passed about half of the initiative measures on the ballot and a third of the referendums. But in recent years, progressive Oregonians have begun to caution fellow voters, as I often do at the grocery store: Think before you ink! Once hailed as a vanguard move of progressive populism, the initiative and referendum system has become a source of confusion and dismay among progressive voters. Fraudulent signature gathering scandalized Oregonians in the last election. For years, large donors have dipped into their coffers to virtually guarantee the success of conservative measures. And for decades, Voters have elected measures that have changed our tax structure and land use planning laws — perhaps unprepared to foresee of the consequences of their votes. During the weekend of Jan. 6, I was lucky enough to attend the Oregon Bus Project's "Engage Oregon" Conference, held this year in Welches with more than 300 attendees. The backbone of this conference was an endorsement process for initiative ideas. At the conference registration table, a two-inch thick binder was thrust into one hand, and a two-inch square sticker placed carefully in the other. "Don't lose that," said the young woman behind the table with earnest anxiety. She wore the Bus Project's signature blue "VOLUNTEER" T-shirt, and appeared to be in her late teens. "That's your voting sticker."   By attending the conference, I was endowed with the great responsibility of voting to support one of 11 proposed ballot initiatives. My sticker was equal to a personal pledge of $50, gathering 20 signatures, or three hours of volunteer service for the initiative campaign. I held my sticker gingerly between my thumb and index finger and considered its political gravity. If I thought signing petitions at the grocery store was hard, this was 10 times harder. Which single campaign would get my pledge? Thankfully, the two-inch thick binder in my other paw placed a font of information at my fingertips. It was a compendium of policy white papers, each drafted by one of the 11 campaigns that had been selected to vie for Bus Project support during the weekend. I thanked the young woman and climbed the steps behind her to the central dining hall. The assembled caucus (including Democratic and Republican elected officials, campaign staff, non-profit organization leaders, and volunteers and community leaders from around the state) spent the next three days attending policy and campaign workshops, and boning up on the 11 initiatives. The concept was simple: Winnow the best ideas and direct statewide support from progressive activists to give each initiative its best chance at success on the ballot. "Oregon has been a birthplace of forward-thinking political ideas – an incubator of cutting-edge public policy," Bus Project founder Jefferson Smith declared in a rousing conference speech. "We need to once again set an example for the nation." In a multiple round voting process, conference attendees narrowed the field to four initiatives. Pledges for all initiatives added up to $8600, 2100 volunteer hours, and 12,000 signatures. The winning prospective initiative, New Energy for Oregon (sponsored by the Apollo Alliance), walked out of the room with pledges of more than $5,000, 1,000 volunteer hours, and 4,000 signatures. New Energy for Oregon seeks to position Oregon as a national leader in clean and renewable energy development and usage. Other initiatives endorsed by the caucus included: • HOPE for Oregon Families, which makes affordable health care a constitutional right, • the Payday Loan Reform Act, which limits the currently debilitating rates charged by short-term lenders, • and the Fair Contributions to Public Schools Act, which requires developers to contribute to help build new schools and rehabilitate existing ones. Dan Carol of Eugene, a board member of the Apollo Alliance and a longtime supporter of the Bus Project, declared that the Bus is the "the emerging center of change-based politics." Caitlin Baggott is a free-lance writer and instigator, residing in Portland. She spends her days knocking sense into sentences and sharing hot dogs with her German shepherd.
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