Republicans want to make sure pesky voters don’t get in the way of their plans to cut down on the number of pesky voters. That’s the long term reason they’re voting to overturn HB 2305, the voter suppression law they passed last year, and why they’re patting LD-9 Republican Ethan Orr on the back for casting the deciding vote to get it out of the House Judiciary Committee. They can’t wait to kill their own bill so they can block the state-wide referendum to overturn it. Then, of course, they plan to reinstate it piece by voter suppression piece, making it referendum-proof.
But they have a short term agenda as well. This November, the referendum would be a magnet for exactly the kind of voters Republicans fear: Democratic-leaning voters. People who otherwise might sit on their hands and their ballots could come out in thousands, or tens of thousands, to vote down the voter suppression measures, which could give Democratic candidates the edge they need to beat out Republicans. With so many state offices on the line, that could spell Republican disaster. Kill the referendum, and Democrats lose a rallying cry.
Both parties love propositions that give their bases an extra incentive to vote. Arizona’s Republican legislators can use their majority to put hot-button propositions onto the ballot any time they want, but the Democratic minority doesn’t have that luxury. For Democrats, it takes money and shoe leather to gather the necessary signatures. Well, they managed to gather 146,000 signatures for the “Protect Your Right to Vote Referendum.” If it’s on the ballot, Democrats can tell voters, “Republicans want to take away your right to vote. You can stop them by opposing the new law. And while you’ve got your ballot in hand, don’t forget to support all those Democrats who support your right to vote.”
Democrats know they can win state races. They’ve done it before; Napolitano and Goddard are two recent examples. Felecia Rotellini came within a hair’s breadth of beating Tom Horne in the last attorney general race. All Democrats need is a little extra push, which translates to a few thousand more voters, and they can do it again.
That, I’m guessing, is what Ethan Orr heard from his fellow Republicans. “Help us out here Ethan,” I imagine them saying. “Help us kill the referendum or we could have a DuVal/Rotellini/Goddard triumvirate telling us what to do.” Orr decided to be a good Republican soldier and carry the GOP banner in the crucial Judiciary Committee vote. Who knows, maybe he actually got those [fingers-crossed-behind-their-backs] assurances from fellow Republicans that they wouldn’t reintroduce the voter suppression measures piecemeal as he claimed. Who knows, maybe Orr actually believed them. Either way, the end result of Orr’s vote will be the suppression of votes for Democrats, short term and long term.
This article appears in Jan 30 – Feb 5, 2014.
Thanks to Jim Nintzel for going in and correcting my sloppy usage in this post. Turns out there’s more difference between “initiative,” “referendum” and “proposition” than this retired English teacher was aware of. Thanks for the lesson Jim.
You may be correct on the short-term ramifications of this. That’s politics.
However, I agree that HB 2305 should be overturned by the legislature for the following reason.
HB 2305 consisted of some good, some bad, and a lot of trash. If the voters overturn it, the good goes out with the bad.
If the legislature tries to reinstate it piecemeal, we can hold their feet to the fire on each piece, and each piece can stand on its own.
I believe Fred DuVal can win anyway. It would be a good counterbalance to Cathi Herrod and her minions.
“If the legislature tries to reinstate it piecemeal, we can hold their feet to the fire on each piece, and each piece can stand on its own.” So says lc69hunter. I wish I were sanguine regarding the likelihood of defeating the pieces of HB 2305 that will be introduced following repeal of the original bill. It isn’t even a done deal that the referendum would succeed, but chances of sanity and justice prevailing at the polls are a whole lot better than in this legislature that has given us one more piece of bad legislation after another. Seems to me as though both Representative Orr and lc69hunter are quite naive, Orr to even begin to believe Chairman Farnsworth and members of the Republican caucus, lc69hunter to think it likely any reintroduced fractions of HB 2305 would be defeated.