Albert Einstein once said, “Great spirits always encounter violent opposition from mediocre minds.”

Great Maine spirits, tired of political games and dishonesty, gathered 100 years ago to demand initiative and referendum rights. The coalition consisted of farmers, hunters, workers, unions, granges, merchants and members of all four political parties (Democrat, Republican, Socialist, Prohibitionist). Although opposed by monopoly banks, railroads, timber companies and most newspapers, the effort was so compelling that the Legislature passed an amendment on to the voters without casting even one dissenting vote.

In the past 15 years, the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine has narrowly survived two initiatives to modify Maine’s peculiar bear hunting system. SAM’s plan to stop bear trapping challenges goes back to 2000, when a former SAM director told me he was advised at national conferences that the best way to protect bear baiting was to destroy the initiative process.

After defeating the bear-baiting referendum in 2000, several anti-referendum bills were submitted to the Legislature by SAM supporters and paper company cronies. Paper companies wanted to stop the Green Party and Donald Sussman from submitting any more anti-clear-cutting initiatives, and SAM wished to stop animal welfare groups’ anti-bear-baiting efforts.

This year, SAM is supporting a bill that would harass citizen initiatives by requiring petition circulators to wear name tags, reveal their pay and residence, and prohibit assistance from non-residents. Neither SAM nor any legislator, however, has ever proposed such restrictions on their own out-of-state money contributions or suggest having their annoying pollsters identify themselves and say who’s really paying for those fake “push-polls.”

Nor have I ever heard any of them propose to have their own paid campaign workers reveal their salaries or residence while they pretend to be volunteers.

It’s hard for a citizens’ initiative to make the ballot here. Maine is the only northern state that has January deadlines for submitting initiative signatures and is the only state where all circulators must be registered voters.

Most issues never make the ballot, and often groups need some temporary help getting the petition in front of enough people to sign during winter. More rules and harassment means less chance for Mainers to challenge the insider politicians, which is what insiders really want. Suggestions to “reform” the initiative process always make it more difficult for the public to rein in the monopoly insiders and their bought-and-paid-for politicians.

David Trahan, now executive director of SAM, managed the June 2010 Republican-led referendum to stop certain tax increases. Trahan also hired many out-of-state paid circulators and managers, the same ones he now criticizes, yet his petition barely garnered enough signatures to make the ballot. Trahan’s petition could never have succeeded without paid help.

As an aside, Paul LePage probably would not have won his party’s primary nomination if Trahan’s anti-tax issue — a perfect fit for rabble-rousing newcomer LePage — had not been on the ballot at the same time.

Instead of trying to make the initiative process more difficult, Trahan and his allies should take responsibility for their own bad situation. Their lifestyle is threatened, not because of free speech and opposing ideas, but because the members have failed to teach young men and women how to hunt, fish, trap and prosper in the woods.

John Michael, a former independent legislator from Auburn, manages Ballot Access LLC, a petition drive company. He sponsored two term-limits initiatives and a repeal of the tax on snacks.

Copy the Story Link