Small Town News

State must take the initiative on referendums

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GOTTA LOVE IT

"I believe in the Initiative and Referendum, which should be used not to destroy representative government, but to correct it whenever it becomes misrepre-sentative."

- Theodore Roosevelt

"There are those occasions under our form of government when the interests of the represented and the interests of the representatives are at odds. The initiative is the means by which the represented assure that their interests ultimately prevail."

- John Talley

What's a citizen to do when an issue comes along and people sense that their elected officials don't quite get it? Demand a referendum.

Never mind that ours is a representative democracy where our leaders are supposedly empowered by the electorate to take care of the people's business. The public distrust of political types means that nowadays when there is a hot-button issue you can be sure the call for a referendum will soon be heard.

Locally, Dewey Beach ought

to consider changing its name to Referendum Reef. It's sometimes hard to figure out why Dewey's residents and absentee property owners even bother to have an elected government. Any time anything needs to be attended to in the town, the call goes out, "Let's have a referendum."

The Ruddertowne redevelopment project went to a referendum over architectural considerations. That went so well that only when the town's insurance carrier cried "no mas" did several years of litigation end with a negotiated settlement. Stay tuned, though: The fat lady hasn't sung yet on that deal, based on new tremors along the dunes.

And now, a call for yet another referendum on how to borrow $900,000 the town has already spent. Elected leaders in Dewey get about as much respect as an illegal immigrant in Arizona.

The recently passed civil union legislation prompted calls from conservative groups for a referendum prior to passage to measure public support for the measure.

Subsequent to the bill's passage, Russ Murphy of the 9-12 Delaware Patriots has commented that Delaware should pass legislation to expand the right of referendum on key issues.

Do we really distrust our public officials that much? Well, no, yes, and no. In fact the idea of a full public vote on the issues goes back to the roots of democ-racy...and not just American democracy such as the town hall meetings.

The Founding Fathers were not big fans of government after all the laws and pronouncements from BCing George III were handed down without any Colonial input; they were very clear that power flowed from the people upward and that leaders would only govern with the consent of the governed

who held all the power.

It's as simple as before and after ...introducing the dynamic duo of democracy - initiative and referendum (I & R).

Initiative is the before. This is what Russ Murphy and our friends in Dewey Beach are really looking to put in place. Initiative generally occurs before an action has been taken and is designed either to spur or halt legislation from gaining passage. California has I & R and a proposition passed through initiative is not subject to legislative approval or a governor's veto. Referendum is the after. A referendum is basically a vote of confidence/no confidence in an action which has already occurred. For example, if Delaware residents had access to referendum, a vote against legislation would be a public nullification of the law.

In both cases, the people get the final word.

Despite the founders' misgivings, as the nation grew people awarded more and more discretion and authority to elected officials. This was when news and information traveled slowly and not at the light speed and byte

speed it does nowadays.

Where past centuries saw our legislators and presidents generally better informed than the body public, nowadays everyone's an expert thanks to print media, television, radio and the internet.

And as we become better informed, the people's desire to delegate every decision to political functionaries is waning. The average citizen is often as well, or better, informed than the representatives elected to office, and probably less beholden to special interests as well.

New Jersey's Gov. Chris Christie (a Blue Hen alum) is an advocate of I&R. It's time for Gov. Jack Markell and our legislative leaders to set uniform criteria for initiative and referendum statewide and acknowledge the obvious.

People of all ages want to be active participants and not passive observers of the political process. Everything old is new again.

Bob Love has been a reporter for community newspapers and a campaign strategist for local, state and federal candidates. He is a former planning board member and charter school board president. Reach Love at ralove.cg@gmail.com.





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