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In 1992, California based Progressive Campaigns, Inc. (PCI)
was founded as a fledgling grassroots, citizen-based organizing
company that has now emerged as the premier firm for qualifying
initiatives and referendums in the United States. Built on successful
efforts to give California voters a voice on insurance and health
care issues, PCI now plays a leading role in promoting nation-wide
campaigns to reform our nation's drug laws. After the 1996 passage
of Proposition 215 for Medical Marijuana, PCI fanned out across
the U.S., opened field offices in 30 major cities in eight different
states, hired hundreds of staff members and thousands of citizen
activists. After helping to pass citizen-lead Medical Marijuana
initiatives (without a single electoral loss) PCI qualified
the landmark Proposition 36 in California of 2000 which sparked
a national debate on drug laws and sentencing reform that featured
effective and cost-saving treatment programs instead of jail
terms for non-violent drug offenders. In addition to its work
on these issues, PCI has also qualified over 135 other candidate
nominations and ballot questions - on topics ranging from taxes,
education, animal rights, competitive bidding of city contracts,
labor issues, and urban development - while securing over 35
million voter signatures at city, county, and state-wide levels.
These efforts have given citizens precious leverage in shaping
the terms of political debate and reform as well as greatly
enhancing voter involvement in this wide body of political subjects.
Case Studies of Success: Michigan & Ohio 2002
In the United States, there are nearly 20 states that have
frequently used initiative and referendum processes. Each state
is unique in its methods and procedures for qualifying ballot
questions. Some states have strict geographical signatures requirements,
others have residency requirements, some have both, but no two
states are alike. PCI has meticulously acquired an unprecedented
wealth of knowledge having successfully qualified initiatives
in every major initiative state in the country. Overcoming the
hottest heat in summers, the rainy season of the Northwest,
or the bone-chilling cold of winter, PCI organizers have conquered
signature-gathering goals from the Cascades of Washington to
the cities and Sierras of California, from New England to the
deserts of Arizona, from the sprawls and Everglades of Florida
to the prairies of Nebraska, as well as the Rockies of Colorado
and the heart of Midwest.
In December of 2001, PCI was commissioned with qualifying Drug
Reform initiatives in Michigan and Ohio. Organizers were quickly
positioned or hired in Detroit, Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids, Cleveland,
Columbus, and Cincinnati. Using well-honed recruitment tactics,
a virtual army of activists was raised from both major cities
and small towns like Pinconning, Michigan or Amherst, Ohio.
Regular citizens, whether political novices or political science
majors from the University of Michigan, unemployed factory workers,
housewives, students, career-changers, or even senior citizens,
all were brought into PCI field offices to receive briefings,
issue teach-ins, and assigned tasks and ultimately were molded
into a highly organized machine of petition circulators.
Suddenly, appearing in front of grocery stores, shopping centers,
movie lines, college campuses, bookstores, parking lots, sporting
events, outside of casinos, post offices, ports, train stations,
government buildings, concerts, bingo functions, coffee shops,
union halls, parks, street corners and sidewalks, and by door
to door, were PCI petitioners. Starting on the first day of
winter, petitioners braved the rain, sleet, and snow to corner,
cajole, sweet-talk, and pitch voters to sign a petition on an
issue the that had sadly escaped either the concern or understanding
of two state legislatures and two hotly opposed governors. Word
of the signature campaign crossed both states like wildfire,
as petitioners were encouraged to recruit their friends, relatives,
housemates, spouses, and the random shopper at a Kroger grocery
store. Fueled by a sponsored signature drive, petitioners quickly
dropped dead-end part-time jobs to make real good money on a
great cause. Soon college professors were contacted and PCI
organizers were invited into classes to recruit even more petitioners.
"The word on the street" quickly became the word in
print. With so many petitioners engaging the public everyday,
news articles, letters to the editors, and ed-op pieces on reforming
drug laws were appearing in the major dailies across both states.
A short time later, NPR radio stations were broadcasting the
debate. Eventually all TV, radio, and print media would end
up covering the issue, especially when several PCI organizers
picketed a press conference with Governor Taft outside a treatment
facility in Columbus.
Road trips were soon organized and petitioners pooled funds
to share a hotel room in Port Huron or Sandusky to chase untapped
voters in outlying towns. Stories abounded of people who often
said they hated their 'day jobs', but were willing to work for
10, 11, sometimes 12 hours or more a day gathering signatures.
Yes, the money was good, but so to was the feedback from voters
who gladly signed the petition. After a month, additional organizers
were hired and PCI field offices sprung up in Michigan towns
like Pontiac, Southfield, Flint, and Kalamazoo. In Ohio, suddenly
Youngstown, Toledo, and Dayton had phones ringing off the hook
as people called in on a Monday and were briefed on the issue
and out and working by Tuesday.
As noted above, states have different laws that govern their
initiative and referendum processes. First, Michigan and Ohio
have different signature totals based on the population of registered
voters. In Michigan, a little over 300,000 valid voter signatures
were needed to qualify a statewide measure. The Ohio initiative
required over 400,000 signatures. Both of these figures were
based on a percentage of voters who had cast a ballot in the
prior Governor's election. Second, both states had different
circulating deadlines. Although the signature drives started
at approximately the same time, Michigan's deadline came up
about a month earlier than Ohio's. Michigan law required all
signatures to be collected and submitted to the state capitol
by the end of June. In Ohio the deadline was to be the end of
July. Third, Michigan law requires that circulators be at a
minimum, U.S. citizens, 18 years of age or older, and a Michigan
resident. While in Ohio, there is no residency requirement.
The significance of these three factors was strategically plotted
out by PCI as the issues were originally filed. When the Michigan
signature campaign ended, at the height of its strength in terms
of manpower and production, a huge pool of Michigan residents
now became eligible by Ohio law to travel to Ohio and work on
that campaign. But it wouldn't work in the reverse order due
to Michigan's residency requirement. Therefore, in early July,
there was literally an invasion of about 125 circulators from
Michigan who poured across the Ohio border. Almost 60 circulators
came just from PCI's Detroit office. The additional surge of
activist manpower in the final month of July easily ensured
that Ohio voters would have a vote on drug reform on November
5th, 2002. |
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