Alaska voters soundly reject Measure 37 clone

Great news for Oregon. We don't have to feel guilty about exporting our horribly flawed Measure 37 to Alaska. Yesterday voters in the Matanuska-Susitna (Mat-Su) Borough near Anchorage voted down Proposition 1, a Measure 37 clone, by a 2-1 margin.

What do you think of that, Dave Hunnicutt and Oregonians in Action? You're always talking about how Measure 37 is a model for other states.

Well, in Alaska it was a model for what not to do. Not even one of 34 precincts voted for Prop 1.

Hunnicutt and I were each quoted in an Anchorage Daily News story about Prop 1, "Land use debate looks to Oregon," that ran last week. Looks like my sentiments were much more in attune with Mat-Su voters.

Brian Hines, an author and retiree who runs the blog hinessight.blogs.com , said Measure 37 has had other ill effects.

He and his neighbors have spent "tens of thousands of dollars" fighting a nearby development of 42 lots on 125 acres, which sprang from Measure 37. It's pitted neighbors against one another.

"The main message is just that Oregonians are waking up and seeking that Measure 37 is not helping the mom and pop landowners people thought it would," Hines said. "What's unfortunate is that with Measure 37, there's so much rancor. It's deeply divisive."

Rindi White, the reporter who interviewed me, mentioned that Alaska has deep libertarian roots. I told her, "So does Oregon." Alaskans and Oregonians value their freedom.

Which includes the right to be free of subdivisions being exempted from land use laws that everyone else has to follow, and the right to not have our neighborhood wells go dry from unregulated excessive Measure 37 development.

Yesterday I was listening to conservative talk radio and heard a caller say, "Freedom is the right to not have things done to you."

Absolutely. That's why Proposition 1 was voted down in Alaska. And why Measure 49, Oregon's Measure 37 fix, is going to pass in November's special election.

Comments

[eagle]

You and your followers need to see this... http://measure49.blogspot.com/2007/10/measure-49-paying-school-yard-bully-to.html

Then you need to learn about the 4(d) rule.

[HarryVanderpool]

I will sure be glad after the election and the M-37 PIG WITH LIPSTICK is fried once and for all.

[ewoc]

Eagle,

Sorry to disabuse you of your ESA ramblings, but Federal law trumps Measure 37 (state law).

In other words, the Oregon legislature (and, by extension, the voters of the state) cannot pass a statute that overrules the reach of the ESA, passed by the US Congress. So your claims that Measure 49 will somehow allow the feds to dictate what you spray on your blackberries if you live next to a salmon bearing stream are irrelevant (but they sure make for good scare tactics!)

If you doubt me, ask any of the lawyers who work for OIA.