Politician-sponsored ballot initiatives in 2018

Citizens can propose initiatives or referendums for the ballot in 26 states. Politicians can utilize the initiative and referendum process as individual citizens—sponsoring, co-sponsoring, or developing proposals for signatures drives with the aim of getting their initiatives on the ballot. This page provides an overview of politician-sponsored ballot initiatives in 2018.

Overview

Politicians sponsored, co-sponsored, or developed 33 of the citizen-initiated measures proposed and 13 of the measures that appeared on the ballot in 2018. Of those measures that appeared on the ballot:

• former elected officials were involved in sponsoring, co-sponsoring, or developing eight of the initiatives (61.5 percent).

• incumbent elected officials were involved in sponsoring, co-sponsoring, or developing four of the initiatives (30.8 percent).

• candidates for elected office, who were not sitting officials, were involved in sponsoring, co-sponsoring, or developing two of the initiatives (15.4 percent).

The following table provides an overview of the number of politician-sponsored initiatives in 2018:

Outcome of politician-sponsored ballot initiatives in 2018
Proposed	Certified	Approved	Defeated
33	13 (39.4 percent of proposed)	6 (46.2 percent of certified)	7 (53.8 percent of certified)

Certified citizen-initiated measures

Year	State	Government	Politician(s)	Initiative	Outcome
2018	California	Democratic trifecta	Carl DeMaio (R), former member of the San Diego City Council	Proposition 6: Voter Approval for Future Gas and Vehicle Taxes and 2017 Tax Repeal	d
2018	Colorado	Divided government	B.J. Nikkel (R), former state representative, and Greg Brophy (R), former state senator	Amendment 75: Campaign Contribution Limits	d
2018	Colorado	Divided government	Dan Gibbs (D), former state senator, and Cathy Noon (R), former mayor of Centennial	Proposition 110: Transportation Bond and Sales Tax Increase	d
2018	Nebraska	Republican trifecta	Kathy Campbell (R), former state senator	Initiative 427: Medicaid Expansion	a
2018	North Dakota	Republican trifecta	Gary Emineth (R), candidate for state Senate	Measure 2: Citizen Requirement for Voting	a
2018	Oregon	Democratic trifecta	State Reps. Julie Parrish (R-37), Sal Esquivel (R-6), and Cedric Hayden (R-7)	Measure 101: Healthcare Insurance Premiums Tax for Medicaid	d
2018	Oregon	Democratic trifecta	John Davis (R), former state representative	Measure 104: Definition of Raising Revenue for Three-Fifths Vote Requirement	d
2018	Oregon	Democratic trifecta	State Reps. Sal Esquivel (R-6), Mike Nearman (R-23), and Greg Barreto (R-58)	Measure 105: Repeal Sanctuary State Law	d
2018	South Dakota	Republican trifecta	State Rep. Mark Mickelson (R-13)	Initiated Measure 24: Ban Out-of-State Contributions to Ballot Question Committees	a
2018	South Dakota	Republican trifecta	State Rep. Mark Mickelson (R-13)	Initiated Measure 25: Tobacco Tax Increase	d
2018	Utah	Republican trifecta	Carl Wimmer (R), former state representative, and Mark Madsen (L), former state senator	Proposition 2: Medical Marijuana	a
2018	Utah	Republican trifecta	Brian Shiozawa (R), former state senator, and Karina Andelin Brown (D), candidate for state House	Proposition 3: Medicaid Expansion	a
2018	Utah	Republican trifecta	Ralph Becker (D), former mayor of Salt Lake City, and Karen Shepherd (D), former U.S. Rep.	Proposition 4: Independent Advisory Commission on Redistricting	a

See also

• Laws governing the initiative process

Footnotes

State ballot measures

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