Groups' initiatives have been skewered
in courts elsewhere

By GWEN FLORIO - Great Falls Tribune - September 10, 2006

HELENA — The pitched battle over a trio of ballot initiatives is getting fiercer, even though it remains to be seen whether the measures will be on the ballot in November.

Last week, a Great Falls judge heard arguments in a case filed by opponents of the measures who want the proposals removed from the ballot because, they allege, signatures were gathered fraudulently.

On Thursday, state District Court Judge Thomas C. Honzel will hear arguments in Helena in a lawsuit filed that claims one of the measures would amend more than one area of the state constitution, and is therefore invalid.

The initiatives — dealing with a state spending cap, judicial recall and eminent domain — are backed by conservative groups and are among similar measures being considered around the country. Courts in other states have dealt harshly with them.

On Friday, Michigan's Election Board found that state's Stop Overspending Committee did not collect the required number of signatures, the Associated Press reported. Also Friday, Nevada's Supreme Court ruled that state's spending-limits initiative may not be placed on the ballot and struck down parts of an eminent-domain initiative.

Last month, an Oklahoma court denied an initiative to set state spending limits, also citing problematic signatures. In Great Falls, District Judge Dirk Sandefur said Friday he expected to rule on the petitions' validity by midweek.

Eric Feaver, of the Montana Education Association-Montana Federation of Teachers, one of the most vocal groups opposing the measures, said he's not waiting for similar action by Montana's courts.

"We're just counting on going to the election. ... We're going to fight these down to the last minute," he said.

Trevis Butcher, the Winifred farmer and rancher coordinating the three initiatives campaigns with an umbrella group called Montanans In Action, said the lawsuits are a tactic by groups seeking to remove voters from the decision-making process.

"These initiatives are all bringing additional rights back to voters," he said.

About a quarter of the 63 citizen-initiated measures that have qualified around the country this year concern those same three subjects, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Many of those efforts have gotten money from a Libertarian group in Illinois, Americans for Limited Government, said Heather Wilhelm, the group's spokesman. She wouldn't say how much that support amounted to.

That fact forms the basis of the opposition to the measures.

"These guys are spending their money in our state, fraudulently claiming that this is what Montanans want. I just don't believe Montanans are going to buy it," Feaver said.

Butcher attributed opponents' focus on out-of-state funding as "really trying to avoid dealing with the matters at hand. Montanans in Action will accept donations from anybody," he said. He estimated the three sub-groups have collected nearly $1 million.

In court Friday, he said that the bulk of the money came from out-of-state organizations and foundations.

Also Friday, Gov. Brian Schweitzer challenged New York real estate developer Howie Rich, the presumed source of much of the funding, to two debates: one in Manhattan, Mont., and one in Manhattan, N.Y., where Rich lives.

"It's odd that you would spend millions of dollars of your own money to amend other states' Constitutions," Schweitzer wrote.

Responding to an e-mail seeking comment, Rich wrote that he's never met Schweitzer.

"He seems to be confused about what is going on in his state," Rich wrote of the governor. "Local groups are working hard to put the voters and taxpayers back in charge in Montana, and Montana voters will have the final say on these issues in the fall. Perhaps that's what has him so worried."

Groups opposing the measures have united as the umbrella group Not in Montana. Basing their strategy on a similar tactic in Colorado, where in 2004 voters repealed similar spending limits, Not in Montana stresses its nonpartisan, eclectic nature.

Members range from the Montana Contractors Association to the Interfaith Ministry of Gallatin Valley to the state chapter of the American Cancer Society.