Re: Dec. 5 news story.
Your article on Amendment 71 greatly undervalued statutory initiatives. Washington state, which legalized pot with Colorado, has only statutory initiatives yet a vibrant petitioning culture. California, like Colorado after Amendment 71, makes it much easier for a statutory measure to get on the ballot. As a result, all 17 statewide measures on this year’s California ballot were statutory — including legalizing marijuana.
You quoted Elena Nunez of Colorado Common Cause relating our legislature’s foolish move to overturn the 1998 campaign finance initiative. She neglected to say that this was the only such instance since 1931. Any of the three proposed amendments on our 2016 ballot other than Amendment 71 could have been statutory, as were Propositions 106, 107 and 108. So could either of the anti-fracking measures that did not get enough signatures. Petitioning in Colorado is far from dead.
Richard B. Collins, Boulder
The writer is a University of Colorado law professor.
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