4 legislators help launch renewed initiative campaign

By JOHN FORTMEYER
CNNW publisher
   SALEM — A renewed initiative effort to overturn Oregon’s new homosexual rights laws has officially been launched with the help of four state legislators, and, as with last year’s effort, the state’s churches will again be asked to play a major role.
   Meanwhile, a separate but related effort by a Christian legal action agency to try to preserve at least part of last year’s initiative efforts is also continuing.
   In both cases, the goal is simply to see Oregonians allowed to vote — possibly this November — on overturning laws that were passed by the state Legislature last year and signed into law by Gov. Ted Kulongoski.
Filed Feb. 29 with the secretary of state’s office by state Sen. Fred Girod (R-Stayton) and state Rep. Sal Esquivel (R-Medford), Initiative 144 seeks to repeal House Bill 2007, Oregon’s new domestic partnership law for same-sex couples.
   Filed March 3 by state Sen. Gary George (R-Newberg), state Rep. Kim Thatcher (R-Salem) and Victor Vityukov of Salem is Initiative 145, which seeks to repeal Senate Bill 2. That law banned discrimination against homosexuals in work, housing and public places.
   Esquivel told the Medford Mail-Tribune newspaper that he decided to become a chief petitioner on the domestic partnership initiative to protest the 2007 Legislature’s failure to refer the politically charged issue to the voters.
   During March, a mandatory review of the proposed initiatives’ ballot titles and wording was underway. Once approved for signature gathering, each initiative would require at least 82,769 valid signatures from Oregon voters by July 3 to place the proposals on this November’s statewide ballot.
   In the meantime, groups that backed last year’s initiative efforts — including Concerned Oregonians and LetOregonVote.com — formerly known as Defense of Marriage and Family Again —– are mobilizing circulators and churches statewide for an efficient collection of required signatures. David Crowe, spokesman for Concerned Oregonians, and former state Rep. Marilyn Shannon of LetOregonVote.com both agree that well over 100,000 signatures should be gathered to avoid the kinds of problems with state and county election officials that last year’s effort experienced.
  “The purpose of Initiatives 144 and 145, as was the purposes of (last year’s referenda), is to preserve what God has ordained, both in marriage and in the moral standards that protect children, families, communities, states and nations,” wrote Crowe in an e-mail to campaign supporters. “Both initiatives provide an opportunity to proclaim truth to millions, the social, moral, and legal acceptances of which, through the ballot box, will determine whether a nation falls into deep darkness and subsequent violence, or whether it restores light, life, freedom, prosperity and peace to a people desperately in search of each of these God-ordained desires.”
  “Something that is this big of a thing to our culture, we should be able to vote on it,” agreed Shannon.
   Crowe and Shannon said that while last year’s initiative literally had to start from scratch, this time their groups have the big advantage of having on file the names of hundreds of people willing to circulate petitions again. Shannon also noted that this time there should be procedures in place for petitions to be easily downloaded from the Internet.
  “It will take a lot of work and a lot more people involved, but we have the potential to gather those signatures in a very short time,” she said. She added that she anticipates support this time from more churches statewide.
   The new initiative efforts were decried by gay rights groups such as Basic Rights Oregon.
  “Our opponents have said all along that they would file again,” said Basic Rights Oregon Executive Director Jeana Frazzini. “While I’m not surprised that initiatives to repeal the laws have been filed, I’m shocked that this effort has been spearheaded by legislators whose duty is to protect Oregonians.”
   Frazzini expressed confidence that Oregonians would ultimately vote against repealing either law, but said her group is prepared for a challenging campaign against the initiatives.
   In the other effort, attorneys with the Arizona-based Alliance Defense Fund on March 5 filed an appeal of a federal judge’s Feb. 1 rejection of ADF’s lawsuit that sought to block implementation of the domestic partnership law. That appeal was filed with the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, Calif.
   Alliance Defense Fund filed the lawsuit on behalf of several Oregonians, alleging that the secretary of state and several different county clerks wrongfully rejected valid citizens’ petition signatures for last year’s referendum that sought to allow voters to decide the domestic partnerships issue.
   At the Feb. 1 hearing in Portland, U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman lifted his preliminary injunction against House Bill 2007 and the law went into effect.
   Austin Nimocks, senior legal counsel for Alliance Defense Fund, said Mosman’s decision had no sound basis.
  “Their signatures were genuine, and no legitimate reason existed to refuse to allow these registered voters to participate in the democratic process,” Nimocks said.
   For the Ninth Circuit to open the way for House Bill 2007 to be placed on this fall’s ballot, it would need to issue a ruling sometime this summer, said Nimocks.
   Shannon said the groups that are working on the renewed initiative campaign greatly appreciate Alliance Defense Fund’s separate efforts.
  “They are just doing a great job,” she said.