This group gets left-leaning policies passed in red states. How? Ballot measures

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One side effect of political division in the states — blue states getting
bluer and red states getting redder — is that some policies don't have a
chance of getting passed by partisan state legislatures, even if a
majority of voters back them.

But a left-leaning advocacy group called the Fairness Project has created
a playbook for using ballot initiatives to go around GOP-led state
legislatures.

Since 2016, it has backed successful initiatives to raise the minimum wage
and expand Medicaid in at least nine states run entirely or mostly by
Republicans at the time of the vote. (It also works in Democratically led
states.)

Now, it's one of several groups gearing up to put abortion rights on the
ballot in 2024. But the recent success of such measures in Republican-led
states has drawn criticism from lawmakers and helped fuel a raft of
attempts to curb ballot measures.

Ballot measures are expensive and time-consuming
When Missouri-based minimum wage advocates wanted to run a statewide
ballot initiative in 2017, they turned to the Fairness Project.

"We're sort of figuring things out as we go, and the Fairness Project is a
particular expert on this tactic," says Missouri Jobs with Justice
political director Richard Van Glahn.

Kansas City and St. Louis had tried hiking their minimum wages, but those
efforts were overruled by state lawmakers. A ballot initiative would raise
the minimum wage across the state — if voters approved it.

But winning takes "more than just motivated people with clipboards," says
Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project.

Citizen-initiated ballot measures to change laws or state constitutions
are possible in nearly half of U.S. states. To qualify for the ballot,
petitions must gather thousands of signatures. Some campaigns then spend
tens of millions of dollars to raise awareness among voters.

The high cost of campaigns often means they can act as policy vehicles for
corporate interests, such as apps employing gig workers or sports betting
companies.

The Fairness Project, the brainchild of a California-based health care
workers union, was created with the idea of using ballot measures to
address quality-of-life issues, SEIU-UHW president Dave Regan tells NPR.

"We need to speak to the common good," he says.

Money and messaging help sway conservative voters
To do that, the Fairness Project partners with local advocacy
organizations and national nonprofits to provide the technical expertise
needed to run a ballot campaign.

That means surveying voters early in the process to gauge whether an issue
has enough public support to succeed, and helping to set up signature-
gathering. The group also vets the language of the proposed constitutional
amendment or statute to make sure it can withstand legal challenges, says
Hall.

When it comes to public messaging, the Fairness Project tests which
narratives will sway the largest number of voters. For example, talking
about bringing voters' federal tax dollars back to their state may get
more votes for Medicaid expansion than talking about it as a benefit
program.

"Folks who can separate these issues from their partisan identity are the
folks that get us over the finish line in these conservative states," says
Hall.

Financing is another part of the process. The Fairness Project sometimes
contributes directly to the state-level campaigns that they work with, but
is rarely the largest donor, according to campaign finance records. Other
financial backers of the measures include dark money groups, progressive
nonprofits or, in the case of Medicaid expansion, business and health care
associations.

The Fairness Project, which operates as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit "social
welfare" organization, does not have to disclose its funders or all of its
activities, drawing criticism from a right-leaning research group that
investigates environmentalist and union spending.

Communications and digital strategy director Alexis Magnan-Callaway
declined to share a list of Fairness Project funders with NPR, but says
unions, foundations and individuals "contribute to our work."

Abortion has shaken up the ballot measure space
Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to
abortion last year, all state ballot measures affirming abortion rights
have been approved, and all of those to restrict the right have been
rejected.

The Fairness Project was involved with a $40 million campaign to pass Prop
3 in Michigan last year, which codified abortion rights in that state.
It's now exploring such measures in several more states where abortion is
restricted or banned.

These plans come as state legislatures move to clamp down on the ballot
process. Lawmakers in at least four states — Ohio, Florida, Idaho and
Missouri — have recently introduced or advanced measures to make citizen-
initiated measures more difficult to run or to pass. Last year, 11 state
legislatures introduced or advanced bills that would introduce new
barriers.

In Missouri, Republican state Rep. Mike Henderson told his colleagues
during a recent session that the state constitution has become too easy to
edit.

"I believe that the Missouri constitution is a living document, but not an
ever-expanding document," he said. Henderson also argued that citizens of
Missouri may not understand what they're voting on, and that such
campaigns can be intentionally misleading.

The state House of Representatives later approved a resolution he
proposed, which calls for raising the threshold to pass citizen-initiated
ballot measures from a simple majority to 60%. However, Democrats have
called the measure itself misleading, because it opens with language about
only allowing U.S. citizens to vote, something already enshrined in the
Missouri constitution.

"The effort to curtail the initiative process seems to me like a purely
political power play," says David Kimball, a political scientist at the
University of Missouri - St. Louis.

He says lawmakers are likely trying to head off future abortion rights
ballot measures, and want to keep the power to make laws, or introduce
constitutional amendments, for themselves.

<https://www.npr.org/2023/02/24/1158797456/fairness-project-abortion-
ballot-measures-gop-democrats-medicaid-minimum-wage>

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In article <be170e55ab2d5805...@dizum.com>,
cri...@pelosi.com says...
>
> One side effect of political division in the states ? blue states getting
> bluer and red states getting redder ? is that some policies don't have a

> chance of getting passed by partisan state legislatures, even if a
> majority of voters back them.
>
> But a left-leaning advocacy group called the Fairness Project has created
> a playbook for using ballot initiatives to go around GOP-led state
> legislatures.

You mean cheat?

>
> Since 2016, it has backed successful initiatives to raise the minimum wage
> and expand Medicaid in at least nine states run entirely or mostly by
> Republicans at the time of the vote. (It also works in Democratically led
> states.)
>
> Now, it's one of several groups gearing up to put abortion rights on the
> ballot in 2024. But the recent success of such measures in Republican-led
> states has drawn criticism from lawmakers and helped fuel a raft of
> attempts to curb ballot measures.
>
> Ballot measures are expensive and time-consuming
> When Missouri-based minimum wage advocates wanted to run a statewide
> ballot initiative in 2017, they turned to the Fairness Project.
>
> "We're sort of figuring things out as we go, and the Fairness Project is a
> particular expert on this tactic," says Missouri Jobs with Justice
> political director Richard Van Glahn.
>
> Kansas City and St. Louis had tried hiking their minimum wages, but those
> efforts were overruled by state lawmakers. A ballot initiative would raise

> the minimum wage across the state ? if voters approved it.

> process. Lawmakers in at least four states ? Ohio, Florida, Idaho and
> Missouri ? have recently introduced or advanced measures to make citizen-