Daily Archive
Stories Posted on August 20, 2008
Fighting A Ballot Question
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Connecticut · Source: Hartford Courant
Tens of thousands of dollars is being raised in an effort to persuade Connecticut voters to reject a proposal on the November ballot to reopen the state constitution. The state's largest teachers union, the Connecticut Education Association, has contributed $40,000 to the group "Vote No: Protect Our Constitution." Planned Parenthood of Connecticut has given $5,000 to the same cause, according to filings with the State Elections Enforcement Commission. That news prompted one member of the group pushing to change the constitution, the Connecticut Constitution Convention Campaign, to send out e-mails urging its members to contribute. The campaign is a coalition of groups that wants voters to approve a state convention so the Connecticut constitution can be changed. The Connecticut Constitution Convention Campaign has raised $1,110.
Initiative thrown out for lack of signatures
Category: Property Rights · State: Arizona · Source: Tuscon Explorer
Measure seeks to allow state to sell land to local governments at market value Arizona Secretary of State Jan Brewer last Friday disqualified Proposition 103 — the “Conserving Arizona’s Water and Land Initiative” — from appearing on the Nov. 4 ballot. Proponents of the measure seek to reform the Arizona State Land Department and how its holdings are managed and sold. According to the state constitution, the land department has to put lands up for sale at public auction. The initiative would change that, allowing the state to sell the lands directly to local governments for purposes of conservation. The measure also would have set aside 570,000 acres of the state land department’s 9 million acres for permanent protection. But the measure lacked the minimum number of signatures to make it on the ballot, according to Brewer.