RE: Citizen initiatives and accountability

[Ellen Russak <erussak@aol.com>]

It was asked: Would the recall process be an effective way to hold elected officials accountable and to ensure that the public's concerns are heard? How would you reconcile this action with the concerns about voter apathy and citizens disengagement?

Things like "recall" and "initiative and referendum" certainly sound good but the devil is in the details.   I look at countries that have votes of no confidence and summarily boot out their elected prime ministers or whatever, and then I think about the approval curves that our presidents go through. I doubt that any of our presidents would have ever have survived a complete term in office. It would be the same with our legislators.  As it is, they can be impeached for serious cause.

As far as initiative and referendum go, it negates our representative government by bypassing our elected representatives.  Who is accountable? To say nothing of the fact that the same terrible problems exist in those initiative campaigns that campaign finance reform is trying to address with our candidate elections - huge amounts of unlimited money being spent; often funded by sham PACs fronting for some well heeled special interest. The information in CA on even one of these initiatives can be inches thick and literally require a graduate degree to understand - and there may be 20 or more of these on the ballot.  

Just imagine the expense to CA to publish and distribute information on these initiatives.  And millions and millions of dollars are spent promoting them.  Sometimes two initiatives will pass that are mutually exclusive. And the poor voters trying to make some kind of sense out of it all. To top it off, look what has happened in CA as a result.

If they don't fiddle with McCain/Feingold too much - and lord knows they are trying - it seems like it's the best bet.  See how it works out and fill in whatever gaps turn up later. 

Ellen Russak