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• To: Members of the Minnesota House of Representatives From: League of Women Voters of Minnesota Re: HF 643 -Proposed Initiative and Referendum Constitutional Amendment Date: February 2001 The League of Women Voters of Minnesota urges you to defeat HF 643. Following a study by our members 15 years ago, the League took a position in opposition to initiative and referendum. At every biennial state convention since then our membership has reaffirmed our opposition to initiative and referendum. Consideration and enactment of complex public policy is most appropriately done in the legislative arena. Our elected representatives, reflecting a wide range of political views, can hear arguments, study implications, make judgements and vote accordingly. No citizen, regardless of how conscientious and deliberative, has access to as much information and as many viewpoints as the members of our legislature. Initiative and referendum bypass legislative scrutiny and ask citizens to vote yes or no on complex issues without amendments, without discussion, without debate. Citizens have ample opportunity to impact the legislative process through writing letters, calling legislators, testifying at hearings, contacting their legislators in their districts and ultimately at the ballot box. Initiative and referendum: 1) weaken representative government by circumventing the legislative process. In the states that use these processes, ballot issues have become as important, in some cases more important, than the election of candidates. Difficult issues can be left to the public to decide, allowing legislators to avoid making controversial decisions. Special interests, which can spend unlimited dollars promoting one side of an issue, take proposals directly to voters, who do not always have all the information they need to make informed decisions. 2) have the potential to disrupt whole bodies of law. Ballot initiatives deal with issues in isolation, often resulting in bad public policy that legislators have to fix later. 3) would allow unlimited spending on ballot issues, spending that would extend to corporations which are excluded from spending money on election campaigns in Minnesota. This would open a huge loophole in our campaign finance laws. 4) have lost their populist roots and become a tool of special interests. Ballot campaigns are now big business. While spending the most money doesn't always assure victory, money does make a difference. In his book, Direct Democracy, Thomas Cronin says that 80% ofbusiness-supported ballot campaigns are successful and when big money opposes a measure "the evidence suggests that the wealthier side has about a 75 % or better chance of defeating it." 5) do not protect minority, low-income or other groups that may not have access to the media or funding to promote their viewpoints. ' Our founders rejected direct democracy and established a republic with its checks and balances, its discussion and debate. The League of Women Voters does not see any reason to change a system that has worked well for Minnesota. We urge you to defeat this amendment.