Represent SD Headed to Pierre Wednesday with Anti-Corruption Initiative Petition

Will they bring Batman?

Represent South Dakota is inviting citizens mad about corruption in Pierre and the repeal of Initiated Measure 22 to join them at the Capitol Wednesday as they hand in their petition to place its Voter Protection and Anti-Corruption Amendment on the 2018 ballot.

We need you there to show the whole state – and especially the political establishment – that the people are committed to putting an end to self-serving politics-as-usual.

It is time to say “Enough is enough!” No more personal gain from public office. No more foreign money in our elections. No more overturning initiated measures. The voters should always have the final say.

Join us next week as we gather to submit those signatures and make a statement that South Dakota still lives up to its motto: “Under God, the People Rule.”

RSVP: http://www.representsd.org/petition_drop

We will gather at the smaller set steps on the sidewalk on Capitol Ave (pictured above) across from the Military & Veterans Affairs Building before heading inside with our boxes. If you are coming into town, plug 425 E Capitol Ave into your GPS for an accurate set of directions [Represent SD, Facebook event details, retrieved 2017.10.15].

Recall that the Voter Protection and Anti-Corruption Amendment essentially writes major provisions of Initiated Measure 22 into the state constitution, where Republican legislators will not be able to repeal it the way they voter-face-slappingly repealed IM22 last winter. The VPACA omits public campaign finance (the “Democracy Credits” that drew heavy fire in the 2016 campaign). The VPACA does enshrine in our constitution many of IM22’s campaign finance limits and lobbying rules and replaces the new State Government Accountability Board with IM22’s toothier state ethics commission. The VPACA adds provisions protecting ballot questions from Legislative interference, like requiring changes to voter-approved initiatives or the initiative/referendum process to be approved by public vote.

Represent SD was confident enough in its petitioning to announce back in August, amid fair season, that it had collected 59% of the 27,741 signatures it needs to place its amendment on the ballot after just a bit more than a month of circulating its petition. If they sustained their rate of signature gathering, the petition they submit Wednesday could have between 40,000 and 50,000 signatures, a healthy cushion above the signature threshold.

Represent SD’s submission comes almost three weeks before the initiative petition deadline of November 6. That could mean many of Represent SD’s circulators will be freed up to work for other petition drives. Nine measures are still seriously circulating:

Initiated Amendments (27,741 signatures minimum):

1. Independent redistricting
2. Open primaries

Initiated Laws (13,871 signatures minimum):

1. Assisted suicide
2. Medical cannabis
3. Recreational cannabis
4. Ban on out-of-state money for ballot question committees
5. Tobacco tax for vo-techs
6. Voting by mail
7. Prescription drug price cap

If the Voter Protection and Anti-Corruption Act is the first measure submitted and certified, it should appear as Amendment W on the 2018 statewide ballot.

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Speaker G. Mark Mickelson, the Koch Brothers, and other opponents of serious anti-corruption reforms may want to scrutinize signatures collected in Sioux Falls for Represent SD over the past week. Patrick Anderson reported Friday that Batman was circulating the VPACA petition on Philips Avenue:

His audience: An older couple wearing sweaters for the fall weather. They strolled by Coffea when the Caped Crusader approached with clipboards and a pitch for reforming campaign finance in South Dakota.

Batman declined an interview. He asked Argus Leader Media get permission from his supervisor. Batman’s supervisor objected to the interview, then called Batman’s cell phone as a reporter continued to take photos.

Away from the rooftops and down on solid ground, Batman wasn’t fighting super villains or even crime. His goal Friday was to gather signatures in support of a constitutional amendment that would introduce more restrictions to the state’s election and ethics laws [Patrick Anderson, “Batman Visits Downtown Sioux Falls, Carries Clipboard for Election Reform,” that Sioux Falls paper, 2017.10.13].

1. If that was Batman, any signatures he collected are illegal. Only South Dakota residents may circulate petitions, and if Bruce Wayne is registered to vote anywhere, it’s Gotham City… or maybe Newton, Iowa.
2. But that couldn’t have been Batman—Batman answers to no supervisor! He takes the law into his own hands!
3. But seriously, running around in a cape and mask may be great for fighting crime and cheering up sick kids. However, if you are circulating a petition to create a new law, and if you are asking people for their names and addresses, you have a moral obligation to operate cognito. As we suspect dark money in politics, so ought we suspect Dark Knights.