Face The State Staff Report
Faced with an August 4th deadline now just 27 days away, signature gatherers are taking to Denver streets in a mad dash, crowding area grocery stores and malls looking for registered voters willing to lend their support to any one of at least 11 initiatives currently being circulated.
Under Colorado law, the Secretary of State can approve a ballot initiative for the November election only after it has received more than 76,000 valid signatures. With most campaigns attempting to collect more than 120,000 total signatures to account for incomplete or fake information, some signature gathering firms are attempting to collect upwards of 100,000 a week to meet the demands for all of the petitions they are circulating.
At the King Soopers at 9th and Corona Monday, signature gatherers from two firms vied for the location, with a Lamm Consulting representative beating out a Field Works staffer. After the Lamm representative got to the location first, the Field Works staffer left for another store.
A spot check of local grocery stores around Capitol Hill, Downtown and Cherry Creek had up to two petitioners peddling up to 11 different initiatives at each location. Lamm Consulting is sending its staff out with seven petitions in tow. Earning between $1 and $2 per signature, petitioners are eager to stop everyone they can to ask them to sign. Petitioners must get permission to stand outside grocery stores, but are rarely denied access unless customer harassment becomes an issue.
Protect Colorado's Future, a coalition of unions and advocacy groups opposed to a Right to Work initiative already approved for this November's ballot, is using Fieldworks to circulate petitions for two measures that concern corporate fraud and firing practices. The corporate fraud measure creates criminal sanctions for corporate executives engaged in fraud. A "Just Cause" measure would require employers to give a reason for firing someone.
According to Jess Knox, director of Protect Colorado's Future, his coalition has an exclusive contract with Field Works but has also given the firm permission to circulate Initiative 82, a countermeasure to the Colorado Civil Rights Initiative, Amendment 46, that would eliminate race and gender preferences in state government hiring, education and contracting.
Initiative 82 would preserve current public hiring, contracting, and education programs that use race and gender as factors of admission and hiring by government agencies.
Knox says that group he represents is opposing CoCRI despite recent poll numbers from the Washington Post and Wall Street Journal concluding that 63 percent of Colorado union households support the measure.
Jon Caldara, president of the Independence Institute and vocal supporter of the initiative process, has two initiatives circulating right now as part of his Clean Government Colorado Campaign. Kyle Fisk, a Colorado Springs-based political consultant, said he has seen Caldara's petitioners around town.
Notable politicos have also taken to the streets in support of their respective petitions. State Treasurer Cary Kennedy was spotted this weekend at the Cherry Creek Arts Festival asking voters to sign a petition in support of a tax increase on the state's oil and gas industry. House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, is also circulating a petition that would dismantle the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. Romanoff's initiative has recently been spotted in Greeley.