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FacebookMischief-making blockers are signature gatherers’ bane
They holler to dissuade potential backers of teachers union petition
Mon, May 5, 2008 (2 a.m.)
Steve Marcus
A man who declined to be identified, left, shows a flier to Vance Borton, center, as Andrea Grefrath, right, tries to gather a signature for a ballot initiative at the North Decatur Department of Motor Vehicles (MMV) office Friday. Grefrath is gathering signatures for a ballot measure that would raise gaming taxes to increase funding for public education. The man who declined to be identified represents a group that opposes the initiative.
Russ Stevens walks out of the North Las Vegas DMV office and is approached by a woman asking him to sign a petition in favor of raising casino taxes to benefit teachers and schools.
Suddenly, a young man descends on them, yelling.
Say no to the tax grab!
Think before you ink!
Just say no!
Confused, Stevens trudges off, leaving Andrea Grefrath without a signature.
Nevadans may think the election is still six months away, but for the various interest groups gathering signatures to get their initiatives on the November ballot, the zero hour is May 20.
That means the teachers union, with the help of California signature gathering consultant Alice Skelton, has just 16 days to obtain the needed 58,000 signatures — and more to offset any invalid signatures — to qualify the initiative for the ballot.
Polls show at least 65 percent of Nevadans would support the measure if it makes it to the November election. But that doesn’t mean a thing unless the union can collect the requisite signatures and then survive a legal challenge to be heard by the Supreme Court on July 1.
Thus the urgent campaign by volunteers with the teachers union and Skelton operatives such as Grefrath to collect signatures at DMV offices, grocery stores and malls.
Not far behind come the blockers.
“Blocking” is the term for disrupting the signature gathering process. Outside the DMV, Russ Stevens encountered a blocker — the disruptive young man who caused commotion by yelling and handing out fliers that said the initiative, which would have to pass twice to become law, is “the biggest tax grab in Nevada.”
(The wording on the flier is ambiguous and so perhaps not literally untrue, but the biggest tax increase in Nevada history was in 2003 and this initiative would be well shy of that.)
The initiative would increase the gaming tax from 6.75 percent to 9.75 percent, a 44 percent increase. The gaming industry says it would depress profits, and with it, investment in future projects that create high-paying jobs.
Such arguments are unimportant to the blocker. He’s here as a nuisance, to create havoc, confusion and all around discomfort so that anyone who might have considered signing the petition will just walk away instead.
A young Republican registering voters said the blockers’ appearance is like clockwork: They arrive soon after the teachers start gathering signatures. In other words, someone is getting paid to spy and report their presence.
The tactics work. After being targeted by the warring parties, Stevens, who said he favors more education spending, grows uncomfortable. He’s befuddled by the whole scene and leaves without signing.
This is politics at its most cynical, but it’s also effective and adds a significant dose of entertainment to the Friday DMV scene.
“She don’t want you to know the truth!” the blocker yells.
Grefrath calls him a tool of the casino companies.
“I don’t work for the casinos!” the blocker says.
He won’t say who he is, or whom he works for, or how much money he makes. More than likely, a political firm hired by a group associated with the gaming industry hired him for this work, at which he is quite adept.
Dan Hart, a political consultant for the teachers, acknowledged the tactic, which he called “desperate,” is having a deterrent effect, but expressed confidence. The teachers have bought radio and newspaper ads in rural counties; a state law requires signatures to be obtained in all 17 Nevada counties.
Lynn Warne, president of the Nevada State Education Association, called the blocking “thug tactics” that wouldn’t thwart the teachers’ effort. “Folks are anxious to see our schools get the adequate funding they’ve needed for years,” she said.
The Nevada Resort Association didn’t return a phone call for this story, but last month a source close to the casino organization coyly told the Sun, “I imagine we’ll use various methods to disrupt the signature gathering process.”
In a round of interviews last week, a gaming company spokesman roundly condemned the proposed tax hike. “It’s naive to think you could raise the taxes of the state’s most dominant industry so dramatically, without any consequences,” Boyd Gaming’s Rob Stillwell said.
The blocker wasn’t so articulate, but he may in the end be more important to a gaming victory.
Discussion: 14 comments so far…
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The petition-gatherers and anyone else opposing the process should be wearing name tags with their affiliations noted. They should also have the approval of the DMV and any other place they gather to collect signatures. Without that approval they should be arrested for trespassing.
Free speech is an amazing thing. Now if someone could hire this guy to disrupt the rest of the petitions that would be great.
This is nothing short of PREDATORY Politics at it's WORSE! These guys are worse then the porn peddlers on the strip!
On the one side you have people trying to participate in the political process politely exercising their rights. Then we have these thugs acosting citizens with their lying, cheating, thieving verbal assaults on our peace, sanity and undermining the democratic process - that should be illegal and enforced!
The signature gatherers should be required to have name tags (with their real names) identifying themselves AND who they are working for AND their political party affiliation AND they should be required to conduct themselves in a civil and professional manner!
Why not have them get a Sherrifs work card - so, we know they are not felons and they are registered to do this work?
And these signiture petitions should also clearly indicate who is "sponsoring" the petition AND the political party affiliation AND the wording should be simple and easy for anyone with a GED High School education to understand - I'm also concerned about possible I.D. theft and the personal information being sold - that should be illegal also!
I recently went to the DMV and just happened to be wearing a t-shirt that said "I Support The Iraq Veterans AGAINST (That Unjust) War" - and as I walked by some Republican who was registering voters acosted me about it saying "That's a TRAITOR'S T-Shirt!" I turned around and fired back "How long did you serve in the military?" Immediately, he jumped up out of his chair and got in my face - it was not a civil interaction to say the least!
No body should have to put up with that sort of stress and dysfunctional mistreatment from anyone - especially when all the citizen is trying to do is get their DMV business done!
Although I was not been accosted at the DMV a couple weekends ago, I did witness a group of three or four people asking people if they were interested in registering to vote. When I said I was already registered they turned and approached the next person. I suppose had I not been registered and gone to do so that they might have inquired as to which political candidate I supported and attempted to lead me to the path of their candidate.
Just as I support the political parties' right to ask people if they want to register to vote, I also support the right of those to gather signatures for petitions regardless of whether I support the underlying petition.
Similarly, if petition supporters are permitted to gather signatures on DMV property then I think it just for opponents to also be on DMV property to verbally oppose the petition gathering.
The difference though, is that the opposition is using tactics that are not intended to permit a person to make an educated decision but are geared towards making the person uncomfortable and want to leave to avoid the continuous verbal 'attack' of yelling before before signing the petition.
Although I am a supporter of first amendment rights, I believe that a person's first amendment rights to generally say whatever they want to say end, or at least become able to be regulated or restricted, when the person begins yelling and screaming at me as a personal attack. Witness the personal attack by the Republican registering voters against Johnathan (12:17pm) above. If the people registering others to vote are going to attack bystanders walking by them who have no interest in participating in what they're selling or doing, then they should either be banned from the DMV property, or there should be a process whereby the bystander can report that person's behavior and have them removed.
Same goes for those disrupting the petition gathering. I will definitely NOT vote for an increase in taxes just on gaming when an across the board tax could bring in the same revenue and not unfairly target the financial engine driving the Vegas economy. The person or persons advocating the same position should not be permitted to come up to me and start yelling at me to tell me I should not sign because of X and Y. They clearly should be permitted to be there and explain their position and handout fliers or information that explains their position, just as the petition signature gatherers are doing. Surely, if the disruptions keep the petition from going through ultimately the result is a good thing - the gaming companies aren't taxed unfairly, but the tactics are inexcusable.
There are many illegal things a group could do to keep someone from running for office or getting a bill passed, but that does not mean they should do it. But just because it can be done, does not mean it should be done this way.
Whoops... 'Although I was not accosted...'
Maybe MGM should just erect a giant tv screen outside the dmv with video message from Terry Lanni telling everyone why they shouldn't sign the petition.
How about raising the casino tax to 18%? The tax in New Jersey is over 9% and other states 21% and higher and they seem to survive. Forget it. The entire Nevada legislature is in the pockets of the casinos. I know for a fact that casino management generously contribute to all Nevada legislative candidates. They are bought and paid for. They casino companies scare them and the voters by threating to reduce (reduce - not eliminate) future projects and possible workforce reductions, etc. This is all bull. I don't blame the teacher's union and I hope they get the signatures needed to bring the casinos into the 21st century.
They both have their right to be there.
When you start limiting ones free speech where does it stop?
If you stop the blockers then how about the Illegals marching in the streets yelling, playing music, blocking traffic asking for rights for being a criminal?
Response to "Vegaslee" - Of course, both sides have a right to be there - there is no question about that! But, no one has the "right" to be rude, nor does anyone have the "right" to scam, cheat, lie and undermine the democratic process - that's the points I was making!
Dear Editor,I feel the need to defend myself and the other nice peolpe whom I share employment. I am a "so called" Blocker or thug as your writer suggests. I do not have a criminal record,although, I do have a good record of serving my country and my local community. Your story was nothing less than "POSED". WHAT REALLY HAPPENED,was the gentleman on leftside of photo was already engaged in conversation with the man in middle of pic. when your so called "loan teacher" rudley broke into their talking then you took the photo, just as you two planned!!!
The petitioners at DMV and UNLV (COME AND SEE)are not victims, they walk in groups, dressed in the latest of "Gang- Wear" they "bully" and try verbally to provoke confrontation, aside from those normal tactics, yesterdays new tactic was telling students at UNLV, if they signed the petition it would help in lowering their tuition costs, I heard this myself, said to at least 5 different students in the span of ten mins as they walked by. So who is uneducated?
Why isn't the Sun interested in how much the petitioners get paid per line signiture? Well as one of their "thugs" bragged about on the UNLV Campus last Thurs., "When I fill seven signature sheets, I get paid $400.00","When this is all over, I'll move to my next state, because I'm a educated professional, doing this hussle for 5 yrs, just going from Ca. to Nev. To Ariz." C'mon "Sun", instead of what might be popular, try writing what is really the truth (your job)
The truth of the matter is this is Nevada, the most free state in the US. With it comes cheap living, no business taxes and poor pay to public servants. The casinos pay half of our budget already and yes their tax rate is low at 6.75%. Look on the other hand and you will see booming construction and an ever expanding strip. What does that create? More sales taxes, room rate fees, and residual income in the form of jobs and new companies prodiving services to people who work in and on casinos.
In other states they regulate gaming and tax it to where it's nothing like it is here. I am from Missouri, and gaming there isn't that great, the investment is half what it is here in expansion (not new licenses). their un-employment is higher, they don't have as many opportunities and living there is much more constricted.
Teachers pay not be high enough, but this is not the answer. The real solution is coming to a better burden sharing agreement. Businesses are not taxed in this state, which is absured, there are no taxes on groceries which isn't a policy in most statesand there are no income taxes either.
We really need to look ourselves in the mirror and come up with a plan which won't kill our growth and economic engine which has made this state desrieable to live in. Remember this was a desert and mountains with less than 1,000,000 people not too long ago, killing the heart of why this changed can only be bad.
Just realize that casinos are pumping money into this place faster than they are making it, and the only reason is because the state business model encourages that. If you work in the gaming industry, support the gaming industry, work in construction, support construction work, are in entertainment, and so on and vote for this, you are essentially cutting your own foot off.
Free Speech is about an individual expressing their opinion freely in the public arena.
Free Speech is Not a wealthy corporation employing surrogates to disrupt the civil expression of free speech for financial gain.
Everyone employed for the purpose of being a surrogate to advance a political opinion should be required to wear a name badge stating the employer.
That goes for signature gatherers and blockers.