As Kansas candidates hit the campaign trail, they should advocate for a referendum process
Voters fill out advanced ballots Oct. 25, 2022, at the Shawnee County Election Office in Topeka. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
The Kansas Reflector reported May 6 that Democrat Mike McCorkle is running against Republican House Speaker Dan Hawkins in Wichita. The three issues raised by McCorkle in his race against Hawkins are, according to reporter Mia Hennen: “protecting women’s reproductive rights, expanding Medicaid and — especially — how McCorkle thinks Hawkins has failed to listen to his constituents.”
While these are important issues, I would submit there are other policies that McCorkle, and all other Democrats running for state office in Kansas, should raise that would enhance their chances of winning.
The No. 1 proposal Democrats should champion is the passage of an amendment to the Kansas Constitution allowing initiative and referendum petitions like Missouri and 25 other states that have some type of a referendum process. Moderate Republicans looking for a way to distinguish themselves from others in their party might be interested in the issue, too.
In Missouri, an initiative can be placed on the ballot if a petition is signed by 5% of legal voters in any six of the state’s eight U.S. congressional districts. Using this referendum process, the electorate of Missouri has been able to pass several key pieces of legislation that were adamantly opposed by the Missouri Legislature’s right-wing Republican supermajority. Those policies include legalizing marijuana, passing Medicaid for all Missourians and keeping anti-union laws from being enacted.
It’s a good bet (pun intended) that legalizing sports betting and the right to an abortion will be on the ballot in November in Missouri, due to its initiative and referendum process.
Kansas should have the same kind of process, and it’s a winning issue for Democrats and whoever else wants to join the cause. How can you argue against a process that is democracy in its purest form? In the mid-1770s, a group of citizens started an initiative and declared independence. A few years later, our forefathers again came together to write the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Those both seem to have worked out pretty well.
I don’t want to understate the difficulty of making this change: Amending our constitution takes a two-thirds vote of both chambers and a majority vote from the public. That’s a tall order. But the initiative and referendum process would allow a majority of Kansans to pass legislation blocked by legislators who favor a minority position. If Medicaid expansion and legalizing marijuana were placed on the ballot in Kansas, state polling suggests they would easily pass.
Hawkins and others could argue that if you do not like what they are doing in the Legislature, you can vote them out of office. However, legislators tend to ignore the average Joe and Jane, and instead follow the dictates of their wealthy donors.
That brings me to the next issue Democrats should trumpet: term limits.
While Hawkins has been in the House of Representatives for a mere 11 years, Republican Sens. Ty Masterson, Carolyn McGinn and Dennis Pyle have been in the Legislature since 2005. On the Democratic side, Rep. Barbara Ballard has been in the Legislature since 1993 (that’s 31 years folks) and Sen David Haley since 2001.
If Democrats and their allies want to win in November and avoid another supermajority, super-conservative Republican Legislature, they need winning issues. Championing an initiative procedure and terms limits could be a path to victory.
Tom Arnhold is a retired attorney, judge and a 24-year veteran of the Kansas Army National Guard, where he served as a JAG officer. Through its opinion section, Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.
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