It is such a frustration to go shopping and encounter a hired gun, being paid to gather signatures to get a referendum question on the ballot. (And hired gun is much nicer than the phrase in my head). Bumped into a guy the other day outside the supermarket who was hustling slots at Suffolk Downs, weed legalization, and expanding private/charter K-12 education. Though he was reluctant to have a real conversation — he didn’t know anything of significance about the issues — he did admit that he’s paid well to come to Massachusetts from out of state to hustle signatures for whomever pays him.
While I think it’s sad that there are people who sell their principles so cheaply, this also is horrible for democracy. I don’t think the ballot initiative process was designed to let people buy policies they can’t enact. Nor do I know why legalizing marijuana needs to pay people to sign — I’d imagine that question would be a slam dunk. Are there any states that prohibit paying signature gatherers?
They know what works, and they’re using door-knocks to further their malice.
Funny that we can’t get national Dems to follow Dukakis’ and John Walsh’s advice, but the Kochs are all over it.
Paying someone to organize seems antithetical to the spirit of Democratic politics (and democratic politics).
That’s the line of work I am trained and degreed in, thank you very much:) I don’t see anything wrong with paying people, though one person collecting for multiple questions seems odd.
I have no objection to professional organizing by committed people like you. But paid mercenaries engaging in politics is another matter.
the word is “scourge,” not “scourage.” I wouldn’t say anything if it weren’t a headline you can fix.
A bad mistake to make….but I’m not sure I can change it, as the headline is also the link. I tried, and nothing seemed to happen.
When you’re in the “Edit post” screen, I’m pretty sure you can freely edit the headline, I’ve done it. If not, then it might be a technical issue of some sort.
…I believe that even when you do edit a headline, the URL will remain the original.
been dis-scouraged!
…’scourage’ is an interesting typo as it suggests the kind of scurrilous bravado necessary to shill a idea you don’t understand for money… on behalf of somebody else.
Scourage indeed…
My own bias for my line aside, I think when we used paid interns, either at this campaign or on the Obama campaign, to gather signatures and doorknock it was a good thing. I agree paying strangers from out of state to gather signatures willy nilly on divergent causes clearly marks that person as a special interest plant.
And the aggressive signature gatherers in downtown Boston working for a variety of progressive causes are the worst too. I did that for part of a summer before I quit and they are paid by the piece which makes them annoyingly aggressive. I wonder if they are paid by right wing groups to discredit environmentalists and planned parenthood.
Typically, true volunteers or paid staffers are in it for the right reasons. Obviously if I wanted to make money I wouldn’t be doing the job I’m in, but it’s definitely more than my volunteers and interns are making (which is nothing) and they really do a better job than the folks profiled here.
….why paid liberal interns, who often have more than one cause or candidate on their clipboard in the name of networking and community organizing, are OK but paid signature gatherers for things you don’t agree with are bad. Maybe they are just interning for capitalism?
Perhaps it has to do with what’s found on the clipboards. I guess you’re correct that the difference is only of opinion.
Still, here’s two speculative clipboards:
Clipboard A:
– Build a wall along the Mexican border
– Begin a program of gathering and executing family members of suspected Muslim terrorists
– Advance legislation to end First Amendment protections for reporters
– Bring charges against judges who make rulings the President disagrees with.
Clipboard B:
– Equal pay for equal work
– Raise the minimum wage
– End discrimination against LGBT individuals
– Take substantive action against atmospheric CO2 emissions
Maybe the gatherers for Clipboard A really are just interning for capitalism. Maybe both are a necessary evil of our current political system.
Maybe neither group of signature gatherers would need to be paid if our economy provided decently-paying jobs for recent college graduates with staggering student debt burdens.
An out of state stranger who says:
-Legalize Pot
-Legalize Slots
-Expand charters
Only because he is being paid good money by special interests to do so.
Paid interns for any cause are good. If the MA GOP has paid interns that go out into the field-great! If either side is paying out of state strangers to gather signatures for conflicting interests, that’s bad.
I specifically said the ones hired by PP and Environment America and the Children’s Fund who congregate on State Street in Chicago or Boylston in Boston are the worst. They are aggressive, annoying, and certainly not sincere.
A young center-right or young center-left student getting paid to do the work they are passionate about is great, indifferent folks getting paid to aggressively harass people is bad.
Interns don’t take those jobs because they don’t care how they earn money. Interns almost always work with officials whose principles they agree with, and quickly learn there are easier ways to make that money.
These mercenaries will gather for any cause, regardless of their personal feelings. The guy I talked to didn’t know anything of substance about the initiatives at hand.
Prostitution and drug dealing are capitalistic too. Does that make it okay, too?
both involving Colorado’s initiative petition law, have brought us to where we are today.
In 1988, a unanimous court (opinion by Justice Stevens) ruled that Colorado’s prohibition against paying petition circulators violated the First Amendment.
In 1999, the court struck down three provisions of Colorado’s initiative petition law on First Amendment grounds: (1) the requirement that initiative-petition circulators be registered voters, the requirement that circulators wear identification badge bearing the circulator’s name, and (3) the requirement that proponents of an initiative report names and addresses of all paid circulators and amount paid to each circulator.
Justice Ginsberg wrote the majority opinion. As to the issue whether petition circulators must be registered voters, Justices O’Connor, Breyer and Rehnquist disagreed and thought that requirement was constitutionally permissible. Here’s Justice Rehnquist:
…that states cannot prohibit non-voters from circulating nomination papers either? If so, I’m not sure Virginia got the memo since when I was living down there just over a decade ago I was told I could not gather signatures to put names on the ballot because I was not registered to vote in VA.
And F all these cranky, get-off-my-lawn hyberbolic rants. “Mercenaries”? Are some of you folks serious? Do you have any idea how ridiculous you sound?
Do I find ’em annoying? You betcha. Such is life in the fast lane of democracy.
Want to annoy them back? Invalidate their sheets. Stray marks. Underline a key word in the text. Be sure to sign on the sheet for the wrong town, and write your town on the address. “Swap” name and address hoping that others will follow suit. I’ve never done this, but then again I’ve never put the telemarketer on mute while I just continued cleaning the kitchen.
…will only invalidate your particular signature, which is why you should collect at least 150% of what you need.