WaPo: This Time, Ballot Issues Could Rally Liberal Base

[Coexist]

Say it again - this time with feeling:

This Time, Ballot Issues Could Rally Liberal Base!

I have never been giddier about the headlines I am reading this morning - this is all fantastic.

According to the National Review, six states have "minimum-wage initiatives on the ballot in six states this fall: Arizona, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, and Ohio. Five of them — Colorado is the single exception — are home to a Senate race featuring a Republican incumbent."

from the Washington Post

<snip>
In 2006, Democrats are hoping to prove that ballot politics can work in the other direction. Measures to increase the minimum wage are before voters in six states. Four of those, Arizona, Ohio, Missouri and Montana, feature close Senate races with a GOP incumbent. In Missouri, moreover, a measure backing stem cell research is ahead in the polls -- which Democrats say could lift their candidate.

<snip>
"Rewarding hard work with a fair wage is not just an abstract pocketbook economic issue but a statement of values," said Kristina Wilfore, executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, which promotes using ballot strategy for liberal causes. "While the left usually talks in dry economic terms, the right made a concerted effort to copyright values -- meaning a set of divisive, scapegoating issues. The popularity of the minimum-wage initiatives is a testament to how powerfully progressive values speak to Americans."

<snip>
Cathy Madewall, 49, an administrative assistant in Cincinnati, said she heard about Let Justice Roll, a faith-based effort in Ohio to raise the minimum wage, at her church. She has not been active in politics in the past, but she has spent hours working for the minimum-wage campaign. And she will vote for a Democratic slate this fall.

<snip>
"I think Sherrod Brown and all the members of the Democratic ticket will ride on the coattails of the minimum wage," he said.

I like it. Help the Democrats help lift people out of poverty.
What a nice way to start the day.

[orpupilofnature57]

1. Simple Paper Ballots ,for the rest of our history ,so * can't happen again.

[Coexist]

2. .

[ProgressiveEconomist]

3. Why aren't VA, MD, and TN on the list? If Soros-type benefactors

wanted to make the maximum difference in turning out Democrats, they'd fund some organization to target min-wage initiatives in most every Republican-held Senate seat of the 33 or 34 up for election every two years.

First-time low-wage voters and their better-off friends turned out by minimum wage initiatives can help ALL Democrats, state-wide. The minimum wage is Democrats' best issue for splitting Wall Street Republicans from "Social Issues" Republicans and low-wage nonvoters, IMO, a gift that can keep on giving. Even if there's a Federal increase next year, low-wage workers and their friends may not be satisfied with the $7 range that's being discussed.

The Senate seats that will be up for election in 2008 are the "Class II" seats listed at http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm .

[Coexist]

4. very interesting.

you appear to be much better versed in the politics of this than I.

Do you think that statewide initiatives in these Class II seats to raise the increased federal minimum wage (after we take back Congress ::fingers crossed::) will really bring out more voters. There are a lot of Rs on that list.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

7. A lot of research would have to go into figuring out which R-held

seats would be safe even from a Predatorgate-type shift in voter sentiment in September '08 (maybe subtract them if money is tight), and which currently Democratic seats might be in play like NJ this year (definitely add them if possible). Then among the remaining 10-20 or so states, legal barriers may be too high in some, as Mr. Coffee points out.

I'd imagine other people have thought a lot of this out, but I haven't looked for it.

IMO, there needs to be a Democratic equivalent of the James Baker Institute of Politics at Rice U, which apparently came up with the ingeniously devious "Voter ID" scheme to disfranchise 11 million disproportionately democratic voters. Democrats could come up with some pretty effective counterstrategies, if only some super-rich Democrats would fund them.

[Coexist]

9. if only Pete Coors woke up tomorrow a changed man, eh?!

Maybe they will work on this in the next two years if min. wage helps take a few seats this time.

[MrCoffee]

6. There could be any number of reasons why they aren't on the list...

differing state laws re: ballot initiatives; organization on the ground to start and run the effort; indications that the time just wasn't right there to float the measure.

I appreciate your sentiment, and sure, it would be great to have minimum-wage measures on every ballot with a Senate race, but there are plenty of perfectly valid reasons why there are not. I applaud the effort being made in the states where they are on the ballot.

[MrCoffee]

5. It's About Freakin' Time!

The "gay marriage" amendments that were all over state ballots in 2000 and 2004 were big time base motivators for the pukes...it's about time we started using initiatives and referendums (sp? referenda?) to GOTV.

[Doctor_J]

8. And the few of us who haven't been purged from the voter rolls

wil be sure to do our part

:eyes: