When Arizona entered the Union in 1912, its constitution was considered one of the more populist charters in the nation. In part what made it so were liberal labor laws, given the time period, including an 8-hour workday, workmen’s compensation and no child labor. But what also made Arizona’s constitution progressive were the number of ways citizens can challenge corporations and even their elected officials: initiatives, referenda and recall.
In fact, when the first Arizona Constitution was sent to President Taft for his signature, he vetoed the document and sent it back, because it included a provision that allowed voters to recall judges, something former (and future) Judge Taft did not like. So Arizona’s Territorial Legislature removed the offensive provision and sent the constitution back to Taft, who signed it on Feb. 14, 1912. Nine months later the citizens of the new state overwhelmingly voted to put the recall of judges back in the constitution, where it remains today.
That’s how much Arizonans value the citizen initiative. And now the pinheads at the legislature are messing with us again.
Arizona currently sanctions medical marijuana and chances are very good that this year will see a legal marijuana bill on the ballot. Given the state’s independent, libertarian strain, it’s not unlikely that a recreational bill like Colorado’s will pass. And Arizona’s legislature is preparing for it, because they know better.
Arizona Legislator: Thy Name Is Hypocrite
Check out these birdbrains: they rant about federal oversight and all but declare secession by passing ridiculous nullification laws that supposedly allow Arizona to ignore federal policies (they don’t). Or they pass sham bills to “take back” federal lands that were never the state’s to begin with. In effect, the Arizona legislature stokes the Sagebrush bullshit we saw at the Bundy ranch and the Oregon standoff, where most of the leaders were from Arizona (Bundy, Finicum, Ritzheimer, O'Shaughnessy, Cooper).
Then these GOP goobers, who value their independence from DC so much, turn around and tell cities and counties what they can and can’t do. If wonderful Bisbee wants to ban plastic bags because, oh, it’s the right thing to do, too bad. Gov. Ducey marshals his corporate windbags, ALEC peckerheads and Koch toadies to pressure the legislature to prohibit Bisbee’s residents from being more responsible than the jerks at the Capitol.
Now they’re at it again with marijuana legalization, and they’re not taking any chances, introducing at least four resolutions that could allow the knuckle-dragging, backwater bilge at the legislature to overturn any voter-approved initiate or referendum. They tried this in 1996 after voters approved medical marijuana, which the all-knowing legislature overturned. In 1998, then, citizens passed the Voter Protection Act, which told representatives and senators they can’t fuck with voter-approved laws, and medical weed was back.
However, as reported in New Times, they’re at it again: One new bill would allow the state to reject an initiative if the legislature’s vote is greater than the public’s. Say an initiative passes with 60 percent of the public’s vote, then the nutballs only have to get 60 percent +1, an easy task in this legislature, which is controlled by rightwing fundies. Another bill allows officials to overturn any initiative if three-fifths of the legislature votes to do so; again, that wouldn’t be difficult with this screwball bunch.
Then there’s a bill that says at least 25 percent of the signatures that put the initiative on the ballot must be from rural communities, an expensive and logistical nightmare for signature gatherers. Finally, the only bill that even mentions drugs says Arizona voters can’t pass an initiative legalizing anything that is “considered a controlled substance under the federal law.”
Funny, when it comes to drugs these GOP nitwits demand that Arizonans kowtow to federal regulations, which most people with two brain cells to rub together consider outmoded, expensive and ruinous. But if the issue is federal gun regulations, or federal land policy, or federal voting laws or federal discrimination directives, then they rear up on their feeble hind legs and shout states’ rights.