Activist Brings Passion for Politics to New Post

Kristina Wilfore, 28, says she is more of a political activist than a nonprofit manager. Her job as the new executive director of the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center, in Washington, “is a means to an end,” says Ms. Wilfore, who describes herself as a committed political progressive.

Ballot initiatives, the yes-or-no referendums presented to voters on election day, have become a major force in American politics. The center, which receives grants from the Open Society Institute, the Stern Family Fund, and the Rockefeller Family Fund, among others, estimates that more than 400 are in circulation this year in the District of Columbia and the 24 states where they are allowed. Referendums, which require a large number of signatures to make it onto a ballot, can force the passage of laws without the vote of legislatures or the signatures of governors.

Ballot initiatives are mostly a phenomenon in the Western states, because, Ms. Wilfore says, those regions have a rich populist tradition. But despite those populist roots, she says, the process has become susceptible to influence by anyone with the money to spend on the advertising needed to get enough votes. Though the current rules make no distinction between conservative and liberal causes, Ms. Wilfore says, conservative causes typically attract more money and thus would be affected the most by efforts to limit donations or disclose the names of donors.

The Ballot Initiative Strategy Center — which was founded in 1996 as part of People for the American Way, a liberal public-policy group in Washington, and has been independent since 1998 — will spend much of its $300,000 projected budget tracking the money that pays for ballot-initiative campaigns.

According to its research, more than half of the money donated to ballot campaigns comes in blocks of $50,000, which Ms. Wilfore points to as evidence of how the process can be swayed by big spenders. The center publishes articles on how government can make the financing more transparent — and how progressive groups can pass referendums that further their causes. Ms. Wilfore will also travel the country, meeting with activists involved in either supporting or opposing initiatives.

Ms. Wilfore’s activist career began when, at age 15, she wrote a letter to the Daily Inter Lake newspaper in her hometown of Kalispell, Mont., criticizing people who were picketing an abortion clinic. She says she is excited about continuing to work as a political activist in her new job, while helping the group grow in size and influence.

In an interview, Ms. Wilfore discussed her new job.

Are state ballot initiatives a good thing?

Though there would be no consensus on my board, I believe that you can do some very effective things with initiatives. At the same time, by putting certain topics on the ballot, you can increase people’s desire to vote. But we believe there have to be some protections, so that the process is not dominated by special interests. People have a right to give money for ballot campaigns, but we as citizens have a right to know who gives that money. The lack of disclosure for ballot-campaign financing is the blind spot of campaign-finance reform. Right now a conservative leader in California, Ward Connerly, has collected signatures to put something on the California ballot called the Racial Privacy Initiative, which would prevent the state from collecting any information on race. We have no idea who funded the campaign because it was all funneled through an organization that is not required to disclose its donors.

What criteria do your group use to decide whether to support an initiative?

We do not endorse specific initiatives. But we do identify themes that we think are good for progressives, like expanding health care, increasing wages, improving education, and improving child care. People who are involved in our network include environmentalists, the civil-rights community, labor, education advocates, and reproductive-choice advocates.

What’s the relationship between money and ballot initiatives?

We think it can have a really corrupting effect. Academics who study ballot measures say you can’t just buy a victory. They also found that it’s easier to campaign for a “no” vote because people are predisposed to voting against a new law, whether it’s progressive or not. But people have spent a lot of money and have been unsuccessful.

Do ballot initiatives weaken legislatures and governors?

There’s definitely a body of thought that says ballot initiatives circumvent state government. Certain things are just not going to happen in the legislature. An example is the “death with dignity” measure [legalizing physician-assisted dying], which passed in Oregon. I think the two systems can complement each other. Critics will use the money argument to say that it’s a bad process. But legislators are lobbied just as hard. Critics also say that there’s less public debate over ballot initiatives. But ballot initiatives are debated in the media throughout the campaign season. Information is sent to voters. When a bill is being considered by a legislature, 40 people come to testify. That isn’t any more public.

Is it challenging to do your work when there’s a popular Republican in the White House?

First of all, party ideology seems to mean very little in the states. I like the lack of partisanship because they get more done. States enact 75 times more laws than Congress and by law cannot run a deficit. At the very least they have to agree on a budget. My frustration comes more from the progressive movement and our failures, rather than the opposition. The opposition has been well funded, tactical, and organized. Progressives tend to do less well. But progressives’ work in the states can really pay off. In 1993, the first law that President Clinton signed was the Family and Medical Leave Act, after similar laws passed in 35 states.

What is your fund-raising strategy?

I will focus mostly on applying for foundation grants. Right now membership and direct-mail campaigns would be too expensive. I want to help foundations understand that ballots are an important niche. In the regular cycle of policy making, something can be proposed and take 10 years. But with a ballot initiative, we know the result the day after the election. Our challenge, and the story we tell, is that we want to teach people how initiatives are being used, provide an infrastructure for progressive ballot campaigns, and build a clean system that’s not susceptible to special interests. My predecessor told me that there’s a “ballot learning curve” among foundations.

ABOUT KRISTINA WILFORE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BALLOT INITIATIVE STRATEGY CENTER

Education: Earned a bachelor’s degree from Washington State University, in Pullman, Wash., in communications and political science, and a master’s degree in public administration from the University of Washington, in Seattle.

Previous employment: Communications director at the Center for Policy Alternatives, in Washington, D.C., and for the Economic Opportunity Institute, in Seattle.

Charitable interests: Ms. Wilfore is a volunteer for the D.C. Creative Writing Workshop, helping middle-school students from low-income families write poetry. She also volunteers to help the Virginia chapter of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League and serves on the advisory board of Journalists Hearing Citizens, a group that promotes civic journalism.

Reading interests: Ms. Wilfore reads biographies and autobiographies. Currently she’s reading the autobiography of Katharine Graham, the late publisher of The Washington Post, and the White House memoir of the former Clinton aide George Stephanopoulos.