Michigan’s ballot proposal funders are for the birds
We almost canceled Talk Back this week. Almost. We’d caught wind The Byrds’ co-founder Roger McGuinn was in concert this Saturday, and since we love the music of the ‘60s we just had to be there. After all, the dude’s 79, so who knows how much longer he’ll plunk his 12-string magic twanger. Only one little problem. He was in Edwardsburg, Illinois. 463 miles away. And the DeLorean was in the shop.
Unless we blew off our show, we’d never get there in time.
That’s when we remembered. With Edwardsburg in the Central Time Zone, we had an extra hour. Bonus! So we headed to the local Tickets R Us to snag some primo seating, and what a mess! Some mop-top maniac was bouncing around like a ping pong ball — maybe he was 8 miles high — leaping onto car roofs, whipping the crowd into a frenzy, and wildly waving his arms while screaming into a megaphone.
“The Byrds aren’t real! The Byrds aren’t reall!”
Clearly, he was some kind of a nut. And then we remembered something else. How McGuinn had once changed his name to Roger from Jim. A fake name? That settled it. Mr. Tambourine Man and his Rickenbacker were nothing but a bunch of hooey. Just like A Flock of Seagulls. And Sheryl Crow.
And Mark Fidrych.
Now don’t let this get your feathers ruffled. Save that for the really important stuff. Like the handful of people who are spending millions of dollars on professional signature gatherers because that’s the only way to get the requisite number to put their most-favored issues on the ballot. Or better yet, bypass the voters completely by sending them directly to Lansing so a sympathetic Legislature can directly enact them into law.
With no chance of a gubernatorial veto.
This year, a dozen or more proposals may appear on the ballot — all with one thing in common. They’re bankrolled by deep-pocketed contributors. Take the newly formed Michigan Guardians of Democracy, which has poured $1.4 million the past few months into a push to make photo ID mandatory at the polls. Plus another $790,000 to limit public health orders to 28 days unless extended by state or local government. And an additional $100,000 toward offering tax credits for donations to public and nonpublic school scholarships. That one’s also gotten a quarter million apiece from four additional donors.
And another $1.4 million from two D.C.-based groups whose funders remain secret.
But that’s nothing compared to the committee that wants to enshrine in the state constitution the current practice of allowing voters without ID to sign an affidavit of identity instead. Nearly $2.5 million of the $2.7 million it’s raised comes from out-of-state donors, led by the Washington, D.C.-based Sixteen Thirty Fund’s $800,000, a half million from Oklahoma philanthropist Lynn Schusterman, and $125,000 from movie director Steven Spielberg.
With money like that, forget the 10-spot you were going to send in. They’ll never miss it.
That’s how it is in the brave new world of citizen initiatives. Whether voting requirements and public health or payday lending and minimum wage, we all get stuck with the finest laws and constitutional amendments the well-heeled — most of whom don’t live here — can buy.
Fortunately, there is a silver lining.
The Eagles, The O’Jays, and The Partridge Family are playing a triple bill next Thursday, and we just scored the best seats in the house and … what’s that? They aren’t real, either? Well, we’ve got only one thing to say about that. Same thing we’re telling those ballot-funding interlopers.
May the bird of paradise fly up your nose.
Talk Back with Doug Spade and Mike Clement is heard every Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to noon Eastern Time on Buzz 102.5 FM and online at www.dougspade.com and www.lenconnect.com.
This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: Talk Back: Michigan’s ballot proposal funders are for the birds
