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A Private Legislature for the Wealthy?

“Working with the state legislators is a fool’s errand,” [Howard Rich] says. “Most of them are RINOs [Republicans in Name Only] who water things down to nothing.” He adds: “The initiative process in 23 states was designed during the Progressive Era to bypass legislatures because, as we know, they played political games, and it is very, very difficult to get any meaningful legislation that advances liberty out of most state legislatures. It’s a matter of compromise, compromise, and compromise.”

— National Review Online, "Get Rich Quick," by Deroy Murdock, 11 Dec. 2006

From PBS' investigative series, NOW* ...

Week of 9.22.06

Interview: Hart Williams

Web Extras: Taking the Initiative | State by State: Ballot Issues and Campaign Finance | Interview: Hart Williams | Transcript

This week's show was inspired by a compelling blog series written by Hart Williams. Williams' research revealed some extra- ordinary truths about efforts to take the "local" out of local ballot initiatives and create them from afar.

Williams has written for a number of publications including The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and The Oregonian.

NOW: How did you first get alerted to this story?

Hart Williams: I got a political mailing: bulk mail, gray envelope with a return address in Illinois. When I opened it, I saw that it was a letter and a petition and asked me to get signatures to put term limits on the ballot ... again. I'm too much of a Google monkey to let something like that go, and when I started to try and find out what that group in Illinois was, every answer raised ten more questions. I kept digging and here we are....

[ * No endorsement from either NOW or PBS is implied or intended.]

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