We have all been getting a taste recently of some of the big gun pressure tactics that businesses use to influence legislators. Only in this case, the “legislators” are actually the voters of Alaska, and so the big guns have been turned on us instead of the legislators. Like the old saw about making sausages indicates, some people might prefer not to know how it is done. It isn’t pretty. But often it is distressingly effective.

     The motivations for these pressure tactics are the two citizen initiatives that are on the ballot in the primary election on Tuesday. Ballot Measure One will strengthen Alaska’s campaign contribution laws after the legislature gutted them in response to a prior initiative that had strengthened them. The influence peddlers don’t like that idea.

     Ballot Measure Two will require the cruise ship industry to pay a tax to help fund government programs which benefit their operations in the state, and to regulate their discharges of pollution into the waters around Alaska. The cruise ship industry really hates those ideas.

     The proponents of these initiatives are ordinary citizens who can’t afford to pour hundreds of thousands of dollars into radio and TV ads and mass mailings. The opponents are businesses and other special interest groups that can. The result has been a totally lopsided media blitz.

     Unless you live under a rock in an undisclosed location, you have seen the ads. They are everywhere, and they are not exactly subtle. Here are some of the relevant features and tactics that the opponents use.

     First, the opponents make sure that they don’t talk about what the initiatives would actually do. The opposition propaganda is not designed to promote voter awareness of the actual provisions of the ballot initiatives. The last thing that the opponents want is a voter who are well informed about what the initiatives would and would not do.

     Second, the opponents have signed up large numbers of their business and political allies to help create the illusion that everyone hates these initiatives. It is a way of appealing to a form of mob mentality. The opponents hope that voters will be afraid to vote against all of these organizations.

     Next, the opponents have employed some very vicious name-calling. Anyone who has read the editorials in the Ghost of the Times knows that name-calling is nothing new in Alaska politics. I have even been known to do some political name-calling of my own on occasion. The difference is that I pick on those who are more powerful than I am. I don’t stomp on those who are unable to defend themselves.

     Finally, the opponents are using the old standby … fear mongering. The have trotted out a parade of horribles which they allege will destroy Alaska and everyone in it if we dare to pass effective campaign laws or to tax and regulate the cruise ship industry.

     Our professional politicians succumb to these types of pressure tactics on a regular basis. Alaska has some of the best politicians that money can buy. Alaska’s voters should be less susceptible for a couple of reasons. Politicians depend on those same special interest groups to finance their reelection campaigns, and their votes are cast in public. Alaska’s voters get to use a secret ballot, and most are not dependent on cash infusions from the special interests. In addition, there are a lot more voters than politicians, so the pressure on the voters is a lot more dilute.

     The opponents are hoping that Alaska has the best voters that money can buy. Unfortunately, some voters will be swayed by the tactics described above. My vote is not for sale, and I hope that yours will not be either.

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