New Yorker Pushes Ballot Initiatives in 12 States

BY DAVE HOGAN And BETSY HAMMOND
c.2006 Newhouse News Service
\ Organizations controlled by Howard Rich, a Manhattan real estate investor with a longstanding interest in libertarian causes, have funneled more than $7.3 million into ballot initiative campaigns in 12 states, according to an analysis by The Oregonian newspaper in Portland.

Most of the Rich groups' money is for state spending caps and property rights measures in the West and Midwest, led by $2.3 million to fund a now-derailed effort to get both causes on the ballot in Missouri.

Next come California, with $1.5 million for a campaign to prohibit government from condemning property for private use, and Oregon, with $1.1 million for campaigns to limit state spending and limit legislative terms.

The amounts for similar campaigns in other states: Arizona, $880,000; Nebraska, $620,000; Oklahoma, $500,000; Idaho, $230,000; Washington state, $200,000; and Maine, $20,000.

One of Rich's groups, Americans for Limited Government, supports initiatives in Michigan, Nevada and Montana, but contribution amounts for those states are not yet available.

Rich's organizations are not the first to bankroll coordinated initiatives in multiple states. Billionaire entrepreneur George Soros and two other men funded marijuana initiatives in 11 states from 1996 to 2000. Most of them passed. And labor unions are pushing minimum wage initiatives in half a dozen states this year.

Many news outlets and political commentators have noted that Americans for Limited Government and the Fund for Democracy, based at Rich's office in Manhattan, are funding initiative campaigns in multiple states. But an analysis of public records by The Oregonian is the first to connect Rich to more than $7.3 million in contributions to initiatives this year.

That spending makes this a breakout year for Rich and his political organizations, which have never spent so much trying to shape state policies.

Americans for Limited Government, until recently a small-time player in U.S. politics, trumpets that it is working with initiative backers in the 12 states. But it downplays its banker role.

Rich declined to answer any questions about money, including how he decides how much to give in each state and how much comes from his personal wealth, saying he wants the focus on the issues.

Rich, a 66-year-old Republican who lives in Greenwich Village, has been active in politics since the 1970s. Known as "Howie," he works on libertarian causes with a handful of like-minded people around the country who were fellow leaders in the Libertarian Party until they broke away in 1983 over an internal party dispute.

For years, his wife ran libertarian-oriented Laissez Faire Books in New York. In the same building where the bookstore was located, the sign on the door of Rich's office reads: "Rich & Rich Inc. Effective Plumbing."

Rich has longstanding ties to Kansas oil billionaires David and Charles Koch, fellow ex-Libertarians who helped found and fund the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. Rich serves on the Cato board.

Rich got his start in initiative politics in 1992, when he created U.S. Term Limits. It contributed $1.8 million to state term limit campaigns that year.

In an e-mail exchange, Rich said his motive to push for spending caps in eight states this year is "transparent. ... We want to help put hardworking taxpayers and voters back in charge of their state governments."

In many states, a coalition that includes business groups and the AARP and funded chiefly by public employee unions is fighting the spending limits.

In Oregon, $1.1 million from Americans for Limited Government and U.S. Term Limits, both tax-exempt groups headed by Rich, account for one-third of the money spent promoting all 10 measures that will appear on the Nov. 7 ballot.

The two Oregon measures that Rich backs -- to limit increases in state spending and reinstitute term limits for legislators -- made the ballot after Oregon petitioners turned in signatures from more than 100,000 voters. In both cases, more than 85 percent of the money to gather signatures came from Rich.

"Oregon has a tremendous group of dedicated people who wanted to work to put these initiatives in front of the voters, and I was more than happy to lend them a helping hand," Rich said in an e-mail.

Measures driven by out-of-state money are atypical and may be cause for concern, says John Matsusaka, president of the Initiative & Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California.

"When you have almost all the money coming from out of state, it raises questions voters might want to think about, like, `Is this really going to do what it says it's going to do?"'

Aug. 8, 2006
(Dave Hogan and Betsy Hammond are staff writers for The Oregonian of Portland, Ore. They can be contacted at davehogan@news.oregonian.com and betsyhammond@news.oregonian.com.)