Rural Counties Crucial To Initiative Petitions

June 08, 1998 - Las Vegas Sun - letters@lasvegassun.com

CARSON CITY -- Rural counties hold the key to whether Nevadans will vote this November on such controversial issues as union dues for political purposes and marijuana for medical treatment.

Initiative petitions are being circulated to gather 46,764 signatures of registered voters to put the proposed constitutional amendments on the election ballot. The deadline for turning in the petitions is June 16.

But the major issue worrying supporters of these various petitions is whether they will be able to comply with the law that requires 10 percent of the voters in each of 13 of the state's 17 counties to sign the petition for it to qualify for the ballot.

Dan Hart, spokesman for the medical marijuana petition, said the number of signatures is not the problem. However, the geographical requirement may present a roadblock.

Rural Nevada's population is widely dispersed. Even if the qualified number of signatures is obtained, it might take only a few disqualifications to knock the petition off the ballot.

"(But) we're close and we're optimistic," Hart added.

Rival petitions are being circulated by the Republican Party and organized labor over the issue of restricting the use of union dues for political purposes. Both sides say they have 60,000 signatures. They are now working the rural counties and also to gain a cushion in case some of the names are found to be ineligible.

Claude "Blackie" Evans, executive secretary of the Nevada State AFL-CIO, said its goal is 75,000 signatures. The AFL-CIO hired the San Francisco firm of Kimball and Associates to help circulate the petition.

"We want to qualify in all 17 counties," Evans said, but conceded there may be problems in gathering the 10 percent of the signatures needed from each county. "I know we will succeed."

Chuck Muth, spokesman for the GOP effort, said, "we're not concerned about the raw numbers. But it's making sure it's qualified in 13 of the 17 counties."

He said the party's goal is to obtain 30 percent more of the signatures than is required in each county to make sure the petition qualifies.

"I'm not saying this is a slam dunk (in qualifying), but we're hopeful," Muth said.

The GOP has hired National Voter Outreach of Carson City, which has been successful in other Nevada voter drives, to circulate the petition.

Republicans leadership wants a constitutional amendment to require that workers sign a yearly consent form to allow their union dues to be used for political purposes. Organized labor's proposal would stop any interference in the collection of union dues. The amendment also would require full disclosure of every campaign contribution; prohibit campaign contributions from foreign interests; and prohibit laundering of campaign contributions.

A group called Nevadans for Medical Rights is backing the marijuana petition which allows its use, upon the advice of a physician, for "treatment or alleviation of cancer, glaucoma, AIDS, persistent nausea, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and other medical problems."

There were four initiative petitions filed by a group called The Justice Foundation of Nevada in Las Vegas to make changes in the court system. Jack Ferm, who headed the foundation, said, however, the group gave up its efforts to qualify the four for the ballot.

He said there was a lot of interest but nobody wanted to donate the time to gather the signatures. "We're trying again next year," he said.

back

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107 and The Berne Convention on Literary and Artistic Works, Article 10, news clippings are made available without profit for research and educational purposes.