LAST WEEK, Concerned Oregonians’ David Crowe sent out another
email missive about his group’s struggle to put two anti-gay
initiatives on November’s ballot. One—Initiative Petition
145—would repeal the state’s anti-discrimination law, and the
other, Initiative Petition 146, would reverse the state’s domestic
partnership law.
But Concerned Oregonians’ effort, in partnership with former State
Senator Marylin Shannon and her “Let Oregon Vote” group, seems headed
for at least partial failure—something Crowe acknowledged in his
update, before begging his supporters to pray.
“The likelihood is that we will have just enough time to
get enough signatures for 145 on the ballot, but not 146,” Crowe
told his supporters via email on April 27. He also explained that the
multiple legal steps petitioners have to pass through to even gain
approval to collect signatures about an issue have delayed the
initiatives. Both petitions—and a third earlier one about
nonexistent “civil unions,” which Crowe acknowledges is “legally
flawed” but is still winding through the process—are caught up in
ballot title approval and appeals.
Basic Rights Oregon (BRO) and the American Civil Liberties Union
(ACLU) have played a part in the delay: Both groups filed comments on
the proposed initiatives. BRO and the ACLU have challenged two of the
prospective petitions to the Oregon Supreme Court.
“Our concern is that voters understand what’s at stake and that we
have ballot titles that accurately reflect the reality of the measure,”
says BRO’s Karynn Fish.
As a side effect, the challenge could tie up the two possible
initiatives for weeks—and Crowe and his allies can’t collect a
single signature in the meantime.
“There is a not a timeline,” says Scott Moore, spokesperson for the
Oregon Secretary of State, which oversees the initiative process. “It’s
the Supreme Court. They run on their own timeline.”
Coupled with Crowe’s past admission that their group is extremely
low on funds ($6,276.33 in the hole, as of this writing), the
initiative delays spell trouble for the effort to overturn Oregon’s new
laws. Even if the Supreme Court okays the petitions in the next few
weeks, the anti-gay activists would have just two months to collect
82,769 valid signatures—or 34,590 more than they failed to
collect before, with one month less to do it.