News Clips

“It’s this ‘Don’t tread on me’ moment where voters are being activated,” says Catherine Turcer, the executive director of Common Cause Ohio, a good-government advocacy group that helped lead the effort to defeat the amendment. “Voters don’t spend a lot of time thinking about the Ohio constitution. They probably don’t spend a ton of time thinking about voting rights,” Turcer told me. But, she said, “the attempt to dilute voter power so that it would impact a vote on reproductive rights made it really concrete, and that was important.” Republicans in Ohio, and in other states where similar ballot measures have flopped, are now confronting the limits of their power and the point at which voters will rebel. Their critics, however, are doubtful that Republicans will shift their strategy. “It’s unlikely that they will stop right away,” Turcer said. “It will take a number of defeats before they’re likely to understand that voters do not want to be taken advantage of.”

The executive director of Common Cause Ohio, Catherine Turcer, noted that the 1912 constitutional convention that birthed the current amendment provisions sought to check a corrupt and unaccountable government. Now, in the wake of perhaps the biggest corruption scandal in state government history — the racketeering conviction of the former House speaker Larry L. Householder for accepting $60 million in bribes — “the State Legislature should choose to actually make changes that create greater transparency and greater accountability,” Ms. Turcer said. “But they’re not. Instead, they’re playing around with the rules.”

Proponents of the new threshold are “willing to change the rules because they don’t trust voters,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio, a nonprofit group focused on strengthening democratic institutions.

“If it wasn’t for Charley and the people he brought from Common Cause, the Ethics Commission would not have had the courage to put Proposition O on the ballot,” said Paul Melbostad, who served eight years on the Ethics Commission. Prop. O passed by a wide margin setting a $500 ceiling on donations, a limit that remains to this day. “Charley had credibility because he never sought personal gain and avoided endorsing candidates and ballot measures other than on (matters of) ethics,” Melbostad said.

Linda Meigs, a political activist from Charlotte, drove to Ms. Cotham's district this month for a meeting with local lawmakers hosted by Common Cause North Carolina and other liberal advocacy groups. Ms. Meigs said she had come prepared to confront Ms. Cotham over how she could have campaigned on ''Democratic Party values such as women's rights to reproductive freedom and L.G.B.T.Q. rights,'' only to reverse her support. Ms. Cotham was invited to speak, but didn't attend. ''When I'm talking to somebody and asking them a question, I usually like to look them in the face,'' Ms. Meigs told a crowded room at a Mint Hill church. ''I can't do that tonight.'' Instead, she pointed to a front-row chair. ''So,'' she said to cheers, ''I'm going to talk to this empty chair.''

The Civil Beat Editorial Board spoke on Tuesday with the program director of Common Cause Hawaii. Camron Hurt said the organization under his leadership will focus on elections, voting access, government transparency and campaign finance reform. Hurt began by explaining what Common Cause does.