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March 10, 2008 - 2:58pm — Joe Mathews

Direct democracy -- the Switzerland-inspired system of initiatives, referenda and recalls that allows voters to make and repeal laws in 24 states -- is poorly understood. It isn’t even very direct. Direct democracy has become blockbuster democracy: a half-billion-dollar international industry of signature gatherers, consultants, and election lawyers who use ballot measures less as a method of making law and more as a tool of mega-communications to boost some politicians, hurt others, and supplement lobbying campaigns.

Blockbuster democracy is a decentralized business that practices wide-open politics. This blog aims to provide a center of news, analysis and conversation for and about the industry. We will report from blockbuster democracy’s capital -- California -- but we’ll monitor ballot measures from across the country and around the globe.

Your Blogger: Joe Mathews is an Irvine senior fellow at New America Foundation; he writes about California, its history, its politics and its government. A journalist for the past 13 years, Joe was until recently a reporter in the Washington bureau of the Los Angeles Times. (He remains a contributing writer at the Times). He covered dozens of initiative campaigns, and published a book about Gov. Schwarzenegger and direct democracy, The People’s Machine, in 2006. He previously reported for the Wall Street Journal and Baltimore Sun, and his work has appeared in The New Republic, The Washington Post, and CondeNast Porfolio.

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Tom Campbell: Yes on Con Con, Requiring Initiatives to Pay for Themselves

Joe Mathews -

September 23, 2009 - 11:57am

Republican Tom Campbell, candidate for governor of California, has retired the trophy for most specific policy answers by someone running for high office, and the election is nine months away. In an interview on the Orange County Register web site, he expresses support for a constitutional convention, and argues such a gathering should include reform of the ballot initiative process:

"...To the extent I would focus on what could only be done through a constitutional convention, I'd emphasis one other and that is the initiative process. It allows an individual or group to put on the ballot something that will cost us, without specifying where the money comes from. That has to change.

So I would like to see a constitutional convention say that if you put an initiative forward, it has to pay for itself specifically. Not in vague generalities. You can't just say, "We'll eliminate waste, fraud and abuse." What tax will you increase? What expenditure will you cut to pay for what you propose?

I believe it would be difficult to get that through as an initiative because the court would consider that what's called a revision, which you cannot do by initiative."

The full interview is here.

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