Why voter intiative suck

Bait and switch.

Prop 2 and three other initiatives in the West would stop this practice. The Kelo decision has been the focus of the campaigns. Check proponents' Web sites, and several show a suburban house with a huge backhoe shovel looming overhead.

But there's more to most of these initiatives than eminent domain. Check the fine print and you'll find part two of the proposals. It's patterned after a measure passed in Oregon two years ago. It delivered a severe blow to Oregon's statewide land-use planning system. This provision says that, if an ordinance decreases the value of someone's property, then the owner can file a monetary claim against the government.

I think Kelo is wrong, but to slip something so much more wide-ranging and dubious in merit along with an anti-Kelo proposition is dishonest. If voter initiatives are to be any good at all, this practise of paperclipping or piggybacking or whatever it is must be stopped.