Pubdate: Sat, 15 Sep 2012
Source: Eagle-Tribune, The (MA)
Copyright: 2012 The Eagle-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.eagletribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/129
Authors: Scott Van Voorhis and Meg DeMouth, New England Center for 
Investigative Reporting

OUT-OF-STATE CASH FUELS BALLOT QUESTION CAMPAIGNS

A billionaire from the Midwest and deep-pocketed interest groups from
as far away as Oregon have taken over the ballot measure process in
Massachusetts, stacking the odds against the kind of grassroots
political activism it was intended to empower, a review by the New
England Center for Investigative Reporting finds.

There are no caps on how much a person or organization can contribute
to a ballot measure campaign in Massachusetts, despite clearly defined
limits for state and federal elections. The unlimited ability to pump
millions into ballot measures gives an unfair edge to well-heeled
special interests, critics say.

"You are not supposed to be able to buy a (ballot campaign)," said
Mary Boyle, spokeswoman for the Washington, D.C.-based government
watchdog group Common Cause. "Democracy should not be for sale to the
highest bidder."

An Ohio billionaire who was once jailed overnight for pot possession
is bankrolling a medical marijuana proposal, hopelessly outgunning
local police chiefs and other opponents, records at the Massachusetts
Office of Campaign & Political Finance show.

And a pair of Oregon-based groups crusading to legalize
physician-assisted suicide provided the bulk of funding to launch the
Massachusetts ballot question, Dignity 2012, the records show.

The leading opponent of the assisted suicide question has raised more
than $900,000, but barely $25,000 has come from inside Massachusetts,
with out-of-state social action groups pouring in the rest, records
show.

'Grassroots' pot campaign

Ballot campaigns pushed by wealthy benefactors can have a huge
financial edge over opposition efforts mounted by local organizations
and ad hoc groups, records show.

The Committee for Compassionate Medicine has touted itself as a
"grassroots'' effort and has raised just over $1,000 from 30 donors,
campaign finance records show.

But almost all the committee's 2011 donations came from Peter B.
Lewis, chairman of Progressive Insurance, who is worth an estimated
$1.2 billion. He contributed $525,000 of the $526,000 donated to the
medical marijuana effort last year, with his 2012 contributions
bringing his total donations to nearly $1 million, records show.

Again, the same pattern repeated itself this year, with Lewis
contributing $465,000 to the medical marijuana committee and other
donors $47,000. Of that, $25,000 came from a Washington, D.C.-based
perfume fortune heir Henry Van Amerigen, with Hollywood TV producer
Marcia Carsey chipping in another $10,000, according to state campaign
finance records

Lewis used medical marijuana to relieve pain after his leg was
amputated, said committee spokeswoman Jennifer Manley of the Dewey
Square Group. He has supplied millions to marijuana legalization
efforts nationwide, campaign finance records show.

"Mr. Lewis is extremely passionate about ensuring all patients who can
benefit from the use of medical marijuana have safe access to it,"
Manley wrote in an email.

Proponents say the Massachusetts medical marijuana proposal say it is
an attempt to help provide relief to terminally ill patients with
diseases like cancer, Parkinson's, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

"Massachusetts' prohibition on medical marijuana means that patients
and their physicians are unable to consider the full spectrum of
medical treatments available," Manley wrote. "In providing
compassionate care, it should be up to the doctor and his or her
patient to decide the best course of treatment, as it is in 17 other
states."

Assisted suicide

Unlimited contributions also flowed in from out-of-state donors
supporting the second ballot measure -- allowing terminally ill
patients the option of physician-assisted suicide.

Dignity 2012 raised $92,000 in cash last year from a range of donors
in and out of state.

But most of its $144,000 of in-kind contributions came from Oregon.
Over $95,000 for signature gathering came from the Oregon-based Death
with Dignity National Center. The Oregon Death with Dignity Political
Action Committee chipped in another $25,000 in services, like
fundraising and public relations, records show.

Nearly $200,000 of the $302,637 raised in 2012 came from the Death
with Dignity National Center and out-of-state activist groups and
individuals, records show.

If passed, the initiative would allow a patient with a terminal
disease with six months or less to live to obtain medication to end
his or her life.

Group spokesman Stephen Crawford denied the campaign is driven by
deep-pocketed, out-of-state interests. The first backers of the
initiative include two former editors of the New England Journal of
Medicine and professors from local medical schools, he said.

"It is really something homegrown -- it is not something from out
west," Crawford said.

Opponents have raised twice as much money, with the Committee against
Physician Assisted Suicide hauling in more than $900,000 since late
April.

However, only $25,000 of the cash raised by the committee came within
from within Massachusetts, records show.

The American Family Association, based in Tupelo, Miss., has pumped
$250,000 into the opposition effort, campaign finance records show.
The Connecticut-based Knights of Columbus anted up $200,000, followed
by the $175,000 contributed by the Washington. D.C.-based American
Principles Project.

The only other source of support from within the Bay State involved
$86,000 of in-kind contributions from the Archdiocese of Boston and
iCatholic Media for web and video production, printing and shipping,
among other assistance, state campaign finance records show.

Another group, MA against Doctor Prescribed Suicide -- No on 2, raised
more than $109,000 as of Sept. 4, with the bulk coming from
right-to-life groups, local doctors and New York hedge fund chief Sean
Fieler, campaign finance records show.

A third ballot initiative, requiring auto makers to cough up closely
held diagnostic information to local mechanics, remains on the ballot,
but there is little campaigning around it now since Legislature passed
the proposal this summer. The initiative raised hundreds of thousands
in 2011 from various auto industry interests, campaign finance records
show.

Outgunned opponents

By contrast, opponents of the medical marijuana initiative, led by a
police group and a recently organized coalition of substance-abuse
educators, are fighting just to raise a few hundred dollars.

The Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association is preparing to roll
out a white paper detailing its opposition to this November's ballot
question, said Wayne Sampson, the Grafton-based group's executive
director. The chiefs have no money for ads or other efforts to get
their message out. The $525,000 Lewis has contributed to the medical
pot campaign is more than the group's annual budget, he said.

"We just don't have the ability to raise money for a political issue,"
Sampson said.

A loose coalition of substance abuse educators and counselors has
formed a committee to fight the measure but so far has raised only
$600, with another $800 pledged, said Josephine Hensley, treasurer of
Vote No on Question 3.

"We are up against a billionaire from out of state who is pushing the
repeal of pot prohibitions across the country," said Heidi Heilman of
Acton, a school substance abuse educator who helped form the group.
"We don't have any money. This is crazy."

Still, opponents of the pot push do have a powerful ally in the
Massachusetts Medical Society, which argues there is no scientific
evidence to back up claims that marijuana has medicinal value.

"We are looking at a so-called medical marijuana (ballot initiative),"
said Walpole Police Chief Richard Stillman. "I use that term loosely
because there is no such thing -- it has no medical use. It's all
about smoking pot and getting high."

But Manley, the spokeswoman for the medical marijuana campaign, said
if the measure passes, patients would only be able to access the drug
after receiving written doctors' recommendations, with verification by
the state. A new felony would be created for anyone "who defrauds the
medical marijuana system with a penalty of up to five years in prison
for distribution," Manley wrote in an email.

"This initiative will be the safest medical marijuana law in the
country," she added.

Instant campaigns?

A cottage industry of lobbyists, public relations firms and other
consultants can play a crucial role transforming cash from wealthy
individuals, corporations and advocacy groups into full-fledged ballot
campaigns, Boyle of Common Cause said.

Of the $525,000 Lewis pumped into the medical marijuana campaign in
2011, almost all the money went to two sources: Rasky Baerlein, a
high-powered Boston public relations firm, and SpoonWorks Inc., a
Brookline-based firm that specializes in collecting the thousands of
signatures needed to get proposals onto the state ballot.

Rasky Baerlein has a track record of success in 13 state and local
ballot initiatives in Massachusetts spanning more than two decades,
said Joe Baerlein, the firm's president. After doing work with the
medical marijuana campaign last year, Rasky shifted its focus this
year, teaming up with the Campaign against Physician Assisted Suicide.
The firm got the lion's share of the committee's expenditures, billing
for more than $365,000, campaign finance records show.

Dignity 2012 has paid Crawford, a top Boston area public relations
strategist who is on his fourth ballot campaign, roughly $24,000 over
the past two years. In the same time, SpoonWorks picked up $157,000
for collecting signatures, while another $15,000 was paid to a
management consultant, records show.

"It makes it all the harder aE& they (grassroots groups) are competing
against paid professionals," said Common Cause's Boyle.

Money talks

Recent ballot campaigns in Massachusetts foretell a grim outcome for
grassroots campaigns short on cash.

George Soros, the multi-billionaire financier, pumped $400,000 into a
successful 2008 ballot initiative that decriminalized possessions of
small amounts of marijuana. The Washington, D.C. - based Marijuana
Policy Project funneled another $320,000 into the effort, campaign
finance records show.

Supporters ultimately raised more than $1.2 million, while opponents
like the Massachusetts Superintendents Association and Mothers Against
Drunk Driving brought in only $50,000, state records show. The measure
passed with nearly 63 percent of the vote.

"If you have money, you can obviously go a long way with a ballot
initiative," said Boyle, the Common Cause spokeswoman. "It is supposed
to allow citizens on their own to put something on their ballot. But
my guess is that it would be very difficult if not impossible if you
are not a well-funded individual."

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The New England Center for Investigative Reporting (www.necir-bu.org)
is a nonprofit investigative reporting newsroom based at Boston
University and supported in part by a media outlets that include The
Eagle-Tribune.
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