What happened to the various propositions, referenda, motions on state ballots November 7? . . . Labor won a big one in Missouri where the first right-to-work measure to be put to a referendum in twenty years was beaten 6 to 4. Big money poured into the state; Labor enrolled thousands of new voters. . . . California voters said no twice, to Prop 5, that would have severely curtailed smoking in public places, and to Prop 6, to permit the firing of homosexual teachers. . . . A tax-limitation (TL) amendment carried, in Michigan, 51 per cent to 49 per cent. Michigan Education Association spent $600,000 on media in Michigan, up from $250,- 000 in 1976. Tax-limitation campaign spent $110,000. . . . In Colorado, a lack of financial support and solid political base contributed to defeat of TL, 58 per cent to 42 per cent (about the same losing margin that TL suffered in Michigan first time, 1976); opposition in Colorado spent $100,000, TL campaign $30,000 on media. . . . In Oregon, a Proposition 13 clone went down to defeat. . . . TL won in Texas 2 to 1, in Arizona 3 to 1. . . . In Hawaii, TL was Proposition 11, easily adopted. . . . In Illinois, Gov. Thompson’s advisory referendum passed overwhelmingly, calling on the legislature to offer a TL amendment to the voters for approval (Illinois does not have initiative process). . . . President Lew Uhler of the National Tax-Limitation Committee (now drawing up a federal amendment) says TL “is alive and well.” . . . Oregon voted in favor of capital punishment; California to extend the number of crimes for which that penalty could be applied. . . . Gambling was out: Floridians don’t want casinos, New Jersey opposes parimutuel betting on jai alai, Virginia (Virginia!) won’t countenance horse racing. . . . Montanans voted to restrict severely the building of nuclear power plants in the state. . . . Florida rejected an equal-rights amendment to the state constitution.
Some zany endorsements: Charles Percy went into his cliffhanger with the endorsement of all of Illinois’ major papers, the AFL-CIO, the United Auto Workers, the Illinois chapter of the ADA, plus Jesse Jackson and Muhammad Ali. They came in to counter smear by Percy opponent Alex Seith that tried to tie Percy in with the alleged racism of former Agriculture Secretary Earl Butz (a masterly job by Tony Schwartz, the NYC media man who once said Goldwater wanted to nuke little girls in daisy fields). . . . In Minnesota, Republican winner David Durenberger, in the senatorial race against Robert Short, got the endorsement of the local ADA; Short failed to win the okay of important labor unions in the state. . . . The very tight senatorial race in Texas was due in part to heavy registration of Chicanos. Late figures show white registration up 23 per cent. . . . An issue that weighed so heavily last fall, winter, and spring sank under the tidal wave of Prop 13 to be heard no more. In none of the newspaper, TV, or radio reports on the election did anyone suggest that a candidate won or lost because he did, or did not, support the Panama treaties.
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