Petition drives for voter ID, medical marijuana, minimum wage bringing in signatures — and money | Politics

From legalizing medical hashish to requiring an ID to vote to elevating the minimal wage, backers of statewide petition efforts are up towards a July deadline to collect tens of 1000’s of signatures to get their initiatives earlier than Nebraska voters.

And one of many committees accumulating signatures is working with considerably deeper pockets than the others: Residents for Voter ID, which helps amending the state structure to require valid photo identification earlier than voters solid their poll.

As first reported by News Channel Nebraska, that group had gotten almost all its cash from Marlene Ricketts, mom of Gov. Pete Ricketts, as of the tip of January.

In response to monetary stories, Marlene Ricketts made a $376,000 donation final July. The identical month, former Omaha Mayor and U.S. Rep. Hal Daub donated $1,000. The group hadn’t reported another donations, money or in any other case.

Virtually all the roughly $271,000 the committee had spent went to nationwide Republican political consulting agency Axiom Methods and Vanguard Area Methods, a grassroots arm of Axiom.

In response to State Sen. Julie Slama of Sterling, one of many petition’s sponsors, Axiom is main coordinating efforts and Vanguard is doing the on-the-ground work. The group’s money steadiness on the finish of January was about $106,000.

Slama pushed again towards the concept that the group’s greatest donor is driving the hassle, saying volunteers are on the bottom and a few grassroots donors have given under the reporting threshold.

“It undoubtedly is a crew effort,” she stated. After this legislative session wraps up, Slama stated she’ll be main a statewide tour to collect signatures.

However there’s one other committee organized that’d prefer to thwart that initiative: Nebraskans for Free and Truthful Elections.

It’s not working with the funding of its nemesis — as of the tip of January, it hadn’t obtained any money donations. However, it had attracted about $66,000 in in-kind contributions.

“By way of it being a grassroots marketing campaign, we actually are one, for positive, at this level. And you may’t actually say that in regards to the different man,” stated John Cartier, director of voting rights for Civic Nebraska, one of many organizations behind the opposition committee.

Cartier stated they’ve been centered on increase a coalition of supporters — he shared a prolonged record of organizations with The World-Herald — however quickly plan to start out volunteer phone-banking throughout the state to steer folks towards voter ID.

The most important in-kind contribution to the group, about $55,000, got here from ACLU of Nebraska, for a public opinion ballot in October. Cartier stated that included polling on voter ID and a few efficient speaking factors. He declined to share particular findings of the analysis however stated it was informative.

“Primarily what we’re coping with is a billionaire attempting to basically change how our elections are ran,” he stated, referring to Ricketts.

Whereas Residents for Voter ID has been essentially the most well-funded poll query committee, Elevate the Wage Nebraska ended January with the very best money steadiness.

The group is gathering signatures for a petition that will put an incremental minimum wage increase on ballots. If voters accepted it, state regulation would change to boost the minimal wage from $9 to $15 by 2026, upping it by $1.50 a yr. After that, the state’s minimal wage can be adjusted annually for cost-of-living will increase.

As of the tip of January, the group had reported receiving about $158,000 in money and spent about $29,000, leaving it with a money steadiness of about $129,000. It had additionally obtained about $91,000 in in-kind contributions.

It was largely bankrolled by the 501c4 affiliate of Nebraska Appleseed, which gave $148,000. The Nebraska State AFL-CIO and ACLU of Nebraska additionally donated $5,000 every.

Its in-kind contributions have come largely from organizations that help the hassle, together with Nebraska Appleseed, ACLU of Nebraska, Nebraska Civic Engagement Desk, Voices for Nebraska and YWCA Lincoln. Along with in-kind contributions — workers time, e mail consulting, an internet site area and different assist — the committee has spent money on printing, paying folks to flow into petitions and compliance consulting.

Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana, which hopes to get a pair of questions on the ballot this November, has additionally raised cash from supporters this cycle.

The hassle is an encore of an initiative the identical group tried to get on the November 2020 poll. Regardless of surpassing the required variety of signatures, it was disqualified by the State Supreme Court for holding multiple topic.

This time round, after searching for recommendation from consultants, the group hopes to keep away from the same destiny. One initiative would deal with affected person and caregiver protections, and the opposite on rules.

As of the tip of January, Nebraskans for Medical Marijuana had obtained about $68,000 in money and spent about $38,000, leaving it with a money steadiness of about $30,000. It had additionally obtained over $22,000 in in-kind donations.

About $13,000 of its money got here from people who’ve given $250 or much less per calendar yr. A number of different people pitched in with donations above $250, together with Sen. Anna Wishart of Lincoln, who’s co-sponsoring the petitions and gave $1,000.

The group obtained a $21,000 switch from the earlier marketing campaign’s committee and $25,000 from an organization known as Agmed based mostly in Elkhorn. Its roughly $22,000 in in-kind contributions have come from the Marijuana Coverage Undertaking in Washington, D.C., which provided workers time in addition to authorized analysis by Omaha regulation agency Fraser Stryker.

The Marijuana Coverage Undertaking additionally donated about $2,600 in money.

No formal committee has registered in opposition to the medical hashish poll initiatives. Nonetheless, marketing campaign coordinator Crista Eggers pointed on the market’s definitely opposition, and third-party teams corresponding to SAM (Good Approaches to Marijuana) Nebraska, which opposes legalization, have run adverts.

“We’re a grassroots marketing campaign,” Eggers stated. “Our donors are folks everywhere in the state, everywhere in the nation who need to see a medical hashish program began on this state, actually, to assist folks. That’s who our donors are.”

Amongst its bills, the committee has spent its money on a texting program, postage and mailing, printing petitions, and paying a coordinator and signature gatherers.

Representatives of the three committees in help of poll questions all sounded constructive about their possibilities of hitting their mark by the July 7 deadline, however none would share what number of signatures they’ve gathered thus far.

Petitions for initiatives that will change state regulation have to gather legitimate signatures from 7% of registered voters. There’s the next, 10% threshold for people who would change the state structure.

Based mostly on the most recent voter registration numbers, that will equate to roughly 87,000 signatures for the minimal wage and medical marijuana efforts and 124,000 for the voter ID effort.

Each sorts additionally must get signatures from 5% of registered voters in 38 of Nebraska’s 93 counties.

In response to the Nebraska Secretary of State’s Workplace, there are 16 petitions whole in circulation now. Committees that help or oppose these causes solely must register and file monetary stories in the event that they obtain or spend not less than $5,000 in a calendar yr.