Secretary of State Brown takes on Oregon initiative reform
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009Welcome news here that Oregon Secretary of State Kate Brown is leading the charge to reform Oregon’s initiative system. By means of legislation introduced in the Oregon House, HB 2005, Brown is fulfilling a campaign promise to clean up Oregon’s initiative system.
It takes little reflection to give this effort two thumbs up. Oregon’s initiative system needs reform. It’s become the playground of out-of-state monied interests who seek to push bizarre agendas here. Most infamously, the abuses of the initiative system have been well chronicled in the case of Bill Sizemore, racketeer.
Secretary of State Brown’s reform proposals provide a modest set of changes that allow better monitoring. The initiative system needs to be transparent, and it needs to be clean. Otherwise, it should be scrapped, even though that radical change would require amendment of the Oregon constitution. At bottom, Oregonians are tired of being played the fools by the likes of Messrs. Sizemore and Parks. So if we’re to maintain the initiative system, modest proposals–like those made by Sec. of State Brown–are essential.
David Sugerman