RALEIGH – North Carolina’s lottery debate, ranging for decades now, may come to a head this week with a floor vote in the N.C. House. Believe it or not, for all the attention that the issue has received over the years, there’s an aspect to it that has yet to receive much of an airing. It is the precedent that the current version of a lottery bill, a so-called “nonbinding referendum” by the voters in November, would set for other contentious issues.
In states with a true initiative process, where citizens have the right to bypass their elected legislators in certain situations and put issues directly on the ballot for a public vote, the result has been a raucous mix of the sublime and the ridiculous. Initiatives have lowered, raised, and reformed taxes. They have banned racial preferences and same-sex marriages. They have adjusted campaign finance and election laws. They have tried to ban partial-birth abortions and limit congressional terms, both the subject of subsequent and adverse litigation.
Most importantly, perhaps, they have limited legislative terms. No political movement in recent years so demonstrates the potential impact of public referenda. Few lawmakers will ever vote to limit their own terms, but every time – let me repeat, every time – voters have been offered the chance to enact term limits on their representatives, they have done so, usually by overwhelmingly margins.
The national term limits movement rolled through the initiative states in the 1990s. Then it stalled. What it needs is a way to put increased public pressure on state lawmakers to allow voters to speak on the issue.
I think that the advisory referendum offers the term-limits movement, and others enamored with direct democracy as a tool of political activism, just such a way to get back into the game. Don’t take my word for it. Last week I interviewed Stacie Rumenap, executive director of U.S. Term Limits in Washington, D.C. She told me that if North Carolina’s legislature were to okay a “nonbinding referendum” on a state lottery, which polls show is supported by about 60 percent to 65 percent of the population, then her organization will be first in line next year demanding a similar referendum on legislative term limits, which are supported by an even-larger majority (we found approval in the high 70s in our last poll on the issue).
“We are always looking for new opportunities,” she said, so a North Carolina referendum on a lottery would be “of great interest” to her organization.
Of course, lawmakers don’t have to say yes. But I seriously doubt they will want to be in the position of saying no to a vote on the popular notion of term limits, having just mumbled that “the people have a right to decide” the issue of a state lottery. Nor will the term-limits folks be the only ones to follow the new North Carolina precedent. Expect conservatives such as right-to-lifers and those seeking bans on racial preferences in university admissions and government hiring to follow suit. I’ve also talked with liberal supporters of campaign finance reforms who express similar intentions.
I’m conflicted on the issue of direct democracy. I don’t think it should be easy to put issues on the ballot, which is cluttered up already, but I also think that an occasional public vote on issues of great importance would serve as a useful check on an imperious legislature. My point today is simply that North Carolina lawmakers show no evidence of having thought this through. They think that the “nonbinding referendum” dodge is all about a lottery, and won’t have any broader ramifications.
They couldn’t be more wrong. If they want populist insurgents armed with opinion polls to start challenging their authority, then they should vote this week for a state lottery. If liberal Democrats want to risk seeing a partial-birth abortion ban on an upcoming ballot, they should vote this week for a state lottery. If longtime House and Senate leaders want to rejuvenate the movement to send them home via term limits, they should vote this week for a state lottery. If local leaders in cities, counties, and school boards want the resurgent tax-limitation movement to replicate a “Proposition 13” campaign in North Carolina, they should pressure their lawmakers to vote this week for a state lottery.
Come on, ladies and gentlemen, what are you afraid of? Don’t you think the people have a right to make their voices heard?