[EL] Most surprising remark in today's oral argument in the Arizona redistricting case

[Daniel A. Smith]

Contrary to an earlier post, the first statewide initiative was not 
adopted until 1904, when voters in Oregon overwhelmingly (three to one) 
adopted the nation's first direct primary nominating convention law. 
(South Dakota voters adopted the initiative in 1898, but they did not 
employ the mechanism immediately).

Regarding Trevor Potter's comment that the people of Arizona's 
"determination to include the initiative process in their constitution 
was a bone of contention in the ratification process" -- that really 
wasn't the case.  Citizens of what would become the state of Arizona 
were not only very supportive of the initiative and referendum 
processes, they also supported the recall of judges.  In February, 1911, 
Arizonians ratified a state constitution with the initiative, 
referendum, and recall, with nearly 80% approval.

President Taft, however, was no such fan, and in August 1911 he vetoed 
legislation to make AZ a state because of the judicial recall provision 
in the AZ constitution.  The judicial recall was subsequently removed by 
the territorial legislature from the draft constitution. Arizonians 
ratified the revised state constitution in December 1911, without the 
recall, with nearly 90% approval at the polls.   Taft approved 
legislation in February 1912 creating Arizona as the 48th state. The new 
constitution included both the initiative and referendum.

In 1912, Arizonians amended Section 1, Article 8 of their state 
constitution, when they adopted a legislative referendum "extending the 
recall to all public officers of the State holding an elective office, 
either by election or appointment."  In that election, men also adopted 
by a two to one margin a citizen initiative granting women suffrage.

More on the history of the referral by state legislatures and the 
subsequent adoption of the initiative by citizens during the Progressive 
Era can be found in my 2008 /APSR /article, available here 
<http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=2300124&fileId=S0003055408080258>. 
More on the use of the initiative to adopt statewide election and ethics 
reforms can be found in my chapter in Bruce Cain, Todd Donovan, and 
Caroline Tolbert's 2008 edited volume, Democracy in the States, here 
<https://electionsmith.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/12-1337-1-ch12.pdf>.

dan

  
daniel a. smith, ph.d.
professor & uf research foundation professor
graduate coordinator
political science internship program coordinator
department of political science
003 anderson hall              |  phone: 352-273-2346
po box 117325                  |  fax: 352-392-8127
university of florida          |  email: dasmith at ufl.edu
gainesville, fl 32611-7325     |  http://people.clas.ufl.edu/dasmith//

section chair, state politics and policy (APSA), 2013-2015
https://twitter.com/electionsmith


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