California college students will need to put down their booze and frantically pick up clipboards if a proposal to lower the state’s drinking age has any chance of hitting November ballots next year.
That’s because the author of a draft ballot measure that would legalize possession and consumption of alcohol by adults 18, 19 and 20 years old says he won’t accept or spend a cent to promote the effort.
And that includes paying petition-circulators, political novice Terry Lynn says, something generally viewed as essential to securing a spot on state ballots.
“I will not raise any money or spend any money beyond my $200 [filing fee] and my website fees,” says Lynn, whose professional background is in startup financing. “I’m a little bit hostile to money in politics [and] I’m not willing to go there and compromise my values.”
[OPINION: Lower the Drinking Age to Reduce Binge Drinking and Sexual Assault]
Indeed, Lynn is pushing two other proposals, one that would mandate nonpartisan elections and another that would add a whopping 1,000 percent sales tax to certain political advertising (but is likely to face constitutional challenges).
His plan is for supporters to gather signatures for all three at once. But the political spending tax hasn’t yet been approved for circulation — a formality that attracted news coverage to his drinking age proposal — so he plans to wait until mid-January to hit the streets.
Waiting more than two months to circulate the alcohol age petition further jeopardizes its chances, as initiative campaigns have less than six months to amass the required 365,880 valid signatures. The signatures for lowering the drinking age are due April 26.
“Good luck!” chuckles Roger Salazar, who worked on a proposed ballot initiative to break California into six states that failed in 2014 to qualify for ballots. That initiative and bids to legalize marijuana that year flopped after failing to clear the then-required 504,760 signatures for initiative statutes (for the marijuana proposals) or 807,615 for constitutional amendments, like the plan to fracture the state.
[RELATED: Pornographers Rip Condom Initiative Appearing on 2016 California Ballot]
“As someone who’s been through this before, hiring petition gatherers unfortunately is one of the only real ways to get the number of signatures you need,” Salazar says.
But Salazar, now working with businessman Tim Draper — author of the six Californias initiative — to support other ballot proposals through his Innovate Your State initiative, points out this year’s signature threshold is much lower than previous election years, due to low turnout in the 2014 governor’s race.
Salazar says the lower threshold means it would cost about $1 million to hire canvassers to get an initiative on state ballots this year.
If the drinking age measure does clear the threshold for ballot access, however, it’s unclear if it could win. A 2014 Gallup poll found just 25 percent of Americans would support a federal drinking age of 18 and in recent years there’s been little political interest in the issue from largely gray-haired politicians who lived through Mothers Against Drunk Driving’s successful campaign in the 1980s to force states to criminalize the sale of alcohol to young adults.
[ALSO: MADD Founder: Don’t Lower the Legal BAC Limit]
All states eventually complied with Congress’ 1984 stipulation that they have a drinking age of 21 or lose some federal highway funds, though the territories Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands continue take the hit and cling to an age of 18, as did Guam until 2010.
California would lose an estimated $200 million annually in federal highway funds if it lowers the state drinking age, according to a fiscal impact assessment from state officials. There was no specific projection for increased alcohol sales tax revenue.
If it qualifies for the ballot, there’s certain to be robust debate about MADD’s claims about the drinking age’s relation to highway safety. Opponents — most notable in recent years a coalition of college presidents — dispute the group’s interpretation of a drop in traffic deaths and say prohibition for young adults has made their drinking habits less safe.
Seemingly related and more salient political issues show voters may be pulled in two directions. There’s a steady march to legalize another intoxicant, marijuana, with voters in four states and the nation’s capital already passing such ballot measures as national polls show majority support. At the same time, states and localities are raising tobacco ages to 21, with New York City and Hawaii leading the way.
[FLASHBACK: Nationwide Fight Begins Over Raising Tobacco Age to 21]
Lynn believes enough Californians share his opinion that a lower drinking age is a matter of equality for the measure to score ballot access and says he will try to resist any unsolicited assistance from the alcohol industry. But practical realities loom large.
“You have to have an infrastructure if you’re not going to hire people,” Salazar says, such as large church networks. “Without it, it’s very difficult unless you have a tremendous base.”
Lynn doesn’t have a pre-built petitioning infrastructure or an existing organization with which he plans to work and simply is collecting email addresses on his website theterrylynn.com. How large — and how enthusiastic — a base of support he has remains to be seen.
“The idea is come January I’ll send out a PDF” to supporters, he says. “I am humble enough to believe if this is not something the people want, then perhaps it’s not something that should pass.”
More from U.S. News
Pornographers Rip California Condom Initiative That’d Let Anyone Sue Them
National Tobacco Age 21? 10 Senators Unveil Bill to Treat Cigarettes Like Alcohol
Pot Foes Gloat After Ohio Vote, But Legalizers Are Prepping for Round 2
Initiative to Lower Drinking Age in California Faces Big Obstacles originally appeared on usnews.com
