Referenda
Few if any polling firms in the nation can match our record of having won 15 of our last 16 statewide referenda campaigns, summarized below. Our work on referenda has focused on protecting and increasing funding for public education, promoting renewable energy, as well as prohibiting smoking in indoor public places, funding tobacco prevention programs, and increasing tobacco taxes. For our clients a win might be passing or defeating certain referenda.
Brief summaries of our statewide referenda campaigns include:
- Worked to defeat legislature-referred law in South Dakota in 2012 that would have created a statewide system of teacher pay for performance and would have restricted due process for teachers.
- Helped defeat legislature-referred statewide school voucher program in Utah in 2007
- Defeated a state TABOR (Taxpayer Bill of Rights) initiative in Nebraska to restrict state government taxing and spending powers in 2006
- Helped defeat a gay marriage ban in Arizona in 2006
- Defeated state constitutional restrictions on school spending in Colorado in 2006
- Passed an increase in the state minimum wage in Montana in 2006
- Passed a state constitutional amendment to require 10% renewable electric energy in Colorado in 2004
- Passed a state ballot initiative in Montana in 2004 to increase the state tobacco tax for health care coverage
- Passed a state constitutional amendment to enact sweeping campaign finance reform in Colorado in 2002, after a 1996 voter-approved statutory version was undermined by the state legislature and governor
- Passed a state ballot initiative in Montana in 2002 calling upon the state legislature to dedicate half the tobacco settlement funds for tobacco prevention and other health purposes
- Defeated a state constitutional amendment in Iowa in 1999 to that would have required a 2/3 legislative super-majority for any state tax increase
- Defeated a state constitutional amendment in Iowa in 1999 to write into the state constitution a 99%-of-revenue cap on spending, which was already written into state law
- Passed a statewide ban on animal trapping in Colorado in 1998
- Passed a referendum to continue video lottery to preserve education funds in South Dakota in 2006 and 2000
