Ballot Initiatives’ effect on the election
by Karina
Web Editor
Planned Parenthood Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota Action Fund
Via RHRreality Check, I learned about a recent article in the LA times discussing the ballot initiative’s impact on the race for the presidency. Columnist Timothy Rutten explains that a developing conservative strategy is to hold ballot initiatives on a range of topics that traditional GOP base tends to feel pretty strongly about: things like abortion, same-sex marriage, and affirmative action.
Rutten explains:
To a large extent, Republicans are being encouraged to rely on this sort of state-by-state strategy because they see the election shaping up as less a contest between Obama and McCain and more as a kind of referendum on the presumptive Democratic nominee, his character and fitness for office. If they're right, Obama would face a larger-than-expected number of voters likely to take a skeptical view of his credentials.
Interestingly, there has been evidence to suggest that abortion may not be as strong of an issue for the GOP as it once was. 36% of women in battleground states who self identify as pro-choice and McCain supporters say they are less likely to vote McCain when they learn that he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade. According to a recent independent study analyzed with the Christian Science Monitor’s Patchwork Nation:
The places where the vote for president was closest in 2004 – and likely will be again in 2008 – all oppose increasing the restrictions on abortion. America’s wealthy suburban enclaves (“Monied ’Burbs” counties) are especially against tighter rules. Nearly 64 percent of those surveyed in those locales said they would “somewhat” or “strongly” oppose “making abortion more difficult.”
Let’s hope that this is true and that the ballot initiatives end up working in our favor this election (or that the excitement surrounding Obama helps bring progressively-minded, reproductive-right supporting voters to the polls). If Rutten is correct in his assertion that this year’s election is not about McCain versus Obama, but rather the question of whether or not Obama is a good candidate, then we MUST make sure that the answer is a resounding YES. Ballot initiative or not, this year’s election will prove to be extremely important to reproductive rights issues.
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