Voters to Decide on 150+ Ballot Initiatives Nationwide

While the media focuses primarily on the presidential race, we get an overview of some of the 153 ballot initiatives being voted today in thirty-six states. Voters will weigh in on matters as diverse as clean energy, children’s health insurance, stem cell research, predatory lending, affirmative action, immigrant rights, abortion, gay marriage, adoption, nonviolent drug offenses, income tax, and treatment of farm animals. We speak with Kristina Wilfore of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center and Richard Kim of The Nation magazine.

AMY GOODMAN: As we continue to look at this record number of voters heading to the polls today, we’re going to look now at some of the 153 initiatives on ballots in thirty-six states. The ballot initiatives this year cover a wide range of issues and are funded by a variety of interests.

Voters around the country will weigh in today on how their state should deal with matters, well, as diverse as clean energy, children’s health insurance, stem cell research, predatory lending, affirmative action, immigrant rights, abortion, gay marriage, adoption, nonviolent drug offenses, income tax, treatment of farm animals.

Kristina Wilfore is with us now. She’s the executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center that tracks ballot initiatives across the country and supports progressive ballot initiative campaigns. She joins me on the phone from—well, are you voting right now, Kristina?

KRISTINA WILFORE: Luckily, I just got out of there. The polls opened here in Washington, D.C.—I’m on Capitol Hill—at 7:00. There was already about 200 people in line at 7:10. And luckily, they pulled the T-through-Zs ahead, so I was able to skirt much of that. But it’s going to be a long day here in the District.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, why don’t you talk about what you see as some of the key ballot initiatives? There’s so much focus on the presidential race that I think when people go to their polling precinct and they look at the polling machine and they see a ballot initiative on it, some will not even know what it’s about .

KRISTINA WILFORE: Mm-hmm, yeah. It certainly, especially this year, gets a little lost in some of the things that are of, you know, more dominance. It’s fascinating, especially in the last week, you see more coverage related to some of the more eclectic and controversial kinds of issues around animal rights or the drug reform or criminal justice issues, and those are an annual part of the ballot.

But what is a little lost in that attention to those measures is some real fundamental issues that we believe are present this cycle, because people really have big problems and want big solutions, around healthcare, clean and reliable energy, and issues that are more core to what people wake up in the night worrying about. And so, from some that you mentioned, around children’s healthcare, home care authorities, creating those in Washington and Missouri, stem cell research, and then everything from alternative fuels in California to clean and solar energy, oil severance tax—there’s a variety of issues that are really fundamental to the kinds of things that we know voters are worried about and want to see real progress on.

AMY GOODMAN: Kristina Wilfore with us, looking at ballot initiatives. We’re also joined in our firehouse studio by Richard Kim, associate editor at The Nation magazine, writes frequently about race, sexuality, popular culture, just returned from California, where he’s following the battle over Prop 8, that seeks a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Anti-gay marriage initiatives that seek to define marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman are also on the ballot in Arizona and Florida. But the campaign to pass California’s Proposition 8 is by far the most expensive and eclipses even the most expensive Senate race this year.

Richard Kim, welcome to Democracy Now!

RICHARD KIM: Hi, Amy.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s talk about this Proposition 8.

RICHARD KIM: You know, it’s an extraordinary thing out in California. It’s almost as if the presidential race is not happening. You drive around, and all you see are Prop 8 signs. Both sides combined will have raised about $70 million—some people are now saying $75 million—for this. So it’s an incredibly, you know, heated thing in California.

What I’m seeing on the ground is that the gay and lesbian groups have been a little bit slow to do outreach to minority communities, to multi-faith communities. The right wing here was incredibly mobilized from the get-go. They have raised a lot of money from out of state, including $1.4 million from the Knights of Columbus, over half-a-million dollars from Elsa Prince, the mother of Blackwater founder Erik Prince. And they have made real inroads into minority communities. I was in LA City Hall on Sunday, and I was at a 2,000, mostly Chinese, rally for Prop 8, you know, lots of kids, “protect mommy and daddy” t-shirts on. So it’s a little bit disturbing. I don’t know how it’s going to break.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s turn to some of the ads for Prop 8.

       LITTLE GIRL: Can boys ever have babies?


FATHER: No, dear, only mommies.


LITTLE GIRL: Megan says you have to have a mommy and a daddy to have a baby.


FATHER: Maybe we should spend a little less time over at Megan’s house.


YES ON PROP 8 AD: Let’s not confuse our kids. Protect marriage by protecting the real meaning of marriage: only between a man and woman. Vote yes on Proposition 8.


LITTLE GIRL: Mom, guess what I learned in school today.


MOTHER: What, sweetie?


LITTLE GIRL: I learned how a prince married a prince, and I can marry a princess.


PROF. RICHARD PETERSON: Think it can’t happen? It’s already happened.


ROBIN WIRTHLIN: After Massachusetts legalized gay marriage, our son came home and told us the school taught him that boys can marry other boys. He’s in second grade.


ROBB WIRTHLIN: We tried to stop public schools from teaching children about gay marriage, but the court said we had no right to object.


NEWT GINGRICH: Our courts have an important role to play in our government, but it is not their role to define American values. That right belongs with the people. As you know, in 2000, California voters went to the polls and voted overwhelmingly in favor of legally protecting marriage. Earlier this year, four judges overruled the will of the people and declared the law that protected marriage unconstitutional. Think about that. Four appointed lawyers—that’s all judges are—overruled more than four million California voters.


YES ON PROP 8 AD: It’s no longer about tolerance. Acceptance of gay marriage is now mandatory.


PROF. RICHARD PETERSON: That changes a lot of things. People sued over personal beliefs. Churches could lose their tax exemption. Gay marriage taught in public schools.


YES ON PROP 8 AD: We don’t have to accept this.


UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Whether you like it or not.


YES ON PROP 8 AD: Yes on 8.

AMY GOODMAN: A medley of some of the advertisements. Kristina Wilfore, you have written about the Mormon Church on Prop 8.

KRISTINA WILFORE: Yeah, and that’s what I think we have to look at, what kind of campaign are they running, which I would say is low road. You know, over—and I’ll speak to the Mormon Church in a second, but over the weekend, I heard that the pro-Prop 8 campaign did a mailer into minority communities, using the image of Obama and quotes about civil unions. Now, he has actually come out against Prop 8. Regardless of how he feels about civil unions, I believe, from what we’ve heard from him, he doesn’t believe that we should take existing rights away, which this California measure would do.

As far as the Mormon money, at least two weeks ago, 44 percent of the total money raised was coming from members of the Mormon Church. And I think that’s a very dangerous road for them to go down. You know, several producers of anti-gay propaganda also market anti-Mormon propaganda, materials labeled by the church as slanderous and hateful, including titles by California-based video company Jeremiah Films such as The God Makers, which calls Mormonism a cult bent on global domination. So, you know, why is the Mormon Church involved? They have never been this significantly involved, both in California and Arizona, where they’ve given over $4 million to that effort, which was already voted on by voters. You know, why are they leading the charge to rewrite California’s constitution? And I think the choice is very clear for voters: do believe the Mormon Church shares your values on marriage, or do you believe the constitution should treat everyone equally?

AMY GOODMAN: Richard Kim, on the issue, the black community is divided on Prop 8, on the anti-gay marriage initiative.

RICHARD KIM: Well, some of the polling over the fall was showing that the majority of black voters were for Prop 8. That’s actually moved very recently. There was an ad that the No on Prop 8 people did. It’s narrated by Samuel L. Jackson. A whole host of black community leaders have come out and done outreach in their community. So I actually think that’s tipping, I hope, today; you’ll actually see the majority of African American and the majority of Latino voters vote no on 8.

They’ve done a very good job of linking this kind of discrimination to Japanese internment, to anti-miscegenation laws, to redlining in California. The big ad that they’re running now focuses on that, and it’s put forward minority voices. So, you know, I’m optimistic. You know, looking at those ads, I will also say that, you know, the whole Yes on 8 campaign has really dissembled around the issue of secularism, right? So in a secular democracy, many faiths can decide what marriage means for them. Nobody is going to be forced to marry gays and lesbians in their church. What the Mormon Church, the Catholic Church and the evangelical churches are asking for is basically monopoly power to enforce their view of marriage on the entire population.