RE: Choice 2: Starting Questions

[Denise Hood <hoodsx3@aol.com>]

The idea of eliminating the influence of Lobbyists and PACS on our legislaors/legislation sounds too good to be true, on the surface. Until I start thinking about issues that are near and dear to my heart, such as  the rights of working people, women's issues, choice, the environment, commonsense handgun legislation, public school education, etc. Then I think about organizations like NOW and NARAL and the Sierra Club and the Audubon Society, and Labor Unions,etc. Where would we, as a society BE without these kind of organizations to act as watchdogs, and educate the public? And I think that in order to get rid of those OTHER Lobbies, that influence legislation that strips our Environmental Laws and blocks any kind of control/regulation of tobacco and handguns, banking and credit card companies, pharmaceutical manufacturers, etc., I have to be agreeable to "throwing out the baby with the bath water." It's difficult to realize that in order to regulate/eliminate those interests I presonally feel are the most offensive, I have to be willing to have my interests regulated/eliminated as well.

I hail from a state that ALREADY allows it's citizens the rights of Initiative and Referendum, and while I support the process, I have seen it be abused, to enact laws that have hamstrung our state government, and our state budget, to the point of nearly taking a "wrecking ball" to our State Transportation Budget, thru the enactment of I-695. Initiative and Referendum can be a tool for private citizens to take back their government, and have more of a voice in shaping public policy. But it can also have unintended results, when well-meaning, but not too well informed citizens get up an Initiative. Thru clever advertizing campaigns, these initiatives can gain wide voter appeal, and only after these measures are passed into law, do citizens wake up to the nightmare of "What have we wrought?" Not ALL Initiatives have the intended result. People have to be extremely careful to do all the research and background work FIRST, before they try to amend their government through use of Initiatives and Referendums.