Monday, June 26, 2006

The coalition of Native American tribal governments in Nebraska circulating
the petition proposing to allow casino-style gaming for economic and
community development purposes has chosen to discontinue the use of paid
petition circulators. Recent controversies arising from the methods used by
paid circulators employed by other petition sponsors contributed
significantly to the tribes' decision, including reports of circulators
offering to pay or give prizes to voters for signing petitions. An
opposition campaign targeting an unrelated petition has also led to a
hostile environment in which all petition circulators have been identified
as villainous out-of-towners intent on misusing personal information
required on the petitions. The tribes have been working with FieldWorks LLC,
a reputable political consulting firm based in Washington, DC, to hire,
train and supervise the paid petition circulators. FieldWorks provided
professional oversight of these paid circulators, who were paid hourly wages
for their work. Although all of the paid circulators hired by FieldWorks
were local residents, many were treated disrespectfully by law enforcement
officials, property owners, and others. Regrettably, this behavior suggested
that the tribes' paid circulators were likely being confused with those
circulating more controversial petitions sponsored by out-of-state special
interest groups.

"This issue is too important to the tribes and to Nebraska for it to be
tarnished by the deceptive tactics used by other petition circulators and
paid civic activists," said Ben Thompson with Affirmative Public Policy
Solutions, the Omaha-based consulting firm hired by the tribes to organize
the initiative campaign. "Members of the public have been misled and are
understandably frustrated by what they perceive to be a misappropriation of
their right to exercise the initiative power."

The tribes will continue to use volunteer petition circulators in an effort
to meet the July 7th deadline for turning in signatures to the Secretary of
State. Many of the volunteer circulators are tribal members that more fully
understand the initiative proposal and can better explain it to potential
signers. Thompson stated, "We hope the exclusive use of volunteer petition
circulators will increase the level of respect accorded to them as they
exercise the first amendment rights shared by all citizens of Nebraska."

Affirmative Public Policy Solutions is a consultancy whose business is
helping public and private entities achieve extraordinary results in public
policy.