Friday, September 30, 2005

Imported Workers Against SSM

The Boston Globe finally noticed what other papers and many bloggers have been reporting — that the rescind same-sex marriage in 2008 forces are using pay-per-signature petition minions. That is good that it woke up, as it is the largest newspaper in the region.

It is unlikely that anyone who supports the initiative will be bothered. It may not have any impact on the neutral who will sign any petition as long as they hear, "Put it before the voters."

As provincial as always, the local paper stresses that the hired guns are from out-of-state, golly, all the way from California. The point should not be where Massachusetts Family Institute/Vote on Marriage folk get their bused-in gatherers.

In this case, despite the loud and repeated claims of PEOPLE'S VOTE and GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGN, they need dayworker pros to get enough signatures, one way or another or another. The ploy too often seems to be to have the employees of Arno Political Consultants, Sacramento, produce a clipboard with multiple petitions. They never say that one of them would strip rights from a class of citizens or specifically that it would rescind same-sex marriage. Mass Equality alone has received over 40 similar complaints.

It is amusing that funds collected for the allegedly people's initiative goes to outsiders to coerce voters here. As is the norm with ballot initiatives nationwide, this one serves the narrow political or economic purpose of a special interest, not the larger pubic at all.

For those incensed by the locale of the gatherers, click over to Arno. It claims to have qualified over 500 initiatives in 20 states with more than 120 million signatures. What they lack in honor, they make up in volume.

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