Posted: Saturday, August 12, 2006 7:00 pm
Who is Howard Rich, the man most often mentioned as the financial power behind numerous state initiative petition campaigns to limit state spending ?
And what is the Libertarian Party, whose philosophy Rich shares ?
Some of the answers appear in print and on the Internet as newspaper reporters and bloggers try to untangle the financial web behind voter initiative petition campaigns in a dozen states, including Nebraska.
The Libertarian movement’s mission is “to maximize individual freedom by limited government power in everything from taxes to judges’ rulings,” says Ray Ring, an editor for the High Country News, a bi-weekly newspaper covering 11 Western states.
Ray offers a famous quote from one of the Libertarian Party’s national leaders Grover Norquist, who wants to reduce government “to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”
Rich is usually described as a wealthy New York real estate investor interested in libertarian issues.
Rich, a 66 year-old Republican who lives in Greenwich Village, has been active in politics since the 1970s, according to an article in a Portland, Ore., newspaper on his involvement with petition campaigns in a dozen states.
“Known as ‘Howie,’ he works on libertarian causes with a handful of like-minded people around the country who were fellow leaders in the Libertarian Party until they broke away in 1983 over an internal party dispute,” Oregon reporters wrote.
“Rich has longstanding ties to Kansas oil billionaires David and Charles Koch, fellow ex-Libertarians who helped found and fund the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C. Rich serves on the Cato Board.”
Rich got started in politics in 1992, when he created U.S. Term Limits, according to the Oregonian newspaper. That group contributed most of the money used to collect signatures to put a term limits amendment in the Nebraska Constitution.
Rich has direct ties to other organizations that have been funding initiative petition campaigns, primarily in Western and Midwestern states.
He is president of U.S. Term Limits, chairman of the board of Americans for Limited Government and the primary donor and leader of Fund for Democracy.
Americans for Limited Government and other groups with which Rich is associated are supporting these issues in different states:
n Spending Lid, a state or a state and local spending lid based on the consumer price index and population growth.
n Eminent domain, to restrict government power to take land for government use or to regulate land use.
n Humane Care, a proposal to require specific end-of-life care.
n Judges, which would allow voters to recall judges.
In Nebraska, Americans for Limited Government and the Fund for Democracy paid for two petition campaigns.
n Stop OverSpending Nebraska, a state spending lid plan.
n Human Care amendment, a proposal to require hospitals and other institutions to feed people at the end of life unless the person has specific instructions in a legal document).
Money from Americans for Limited Government and the Fund for Democracy — almost $1.7 million — was funneled through a group called America at its Best.
Americans for Limited Government was the only donor to Committee for State Stewardship, the pro-lid group started by David Nabity, unsuccessful candidate for the Republican governor’s nomination. Nabity’s committee got $60,000. Like the other two committees, all of its money flowed through a third entity, Colorado at its Best.
The Oregonian reporters used information from an e-mail exchange in which Rich said his motive to push for spending caps in eight states this year is “transparent. … We want to help out hardworking taxpayers and voters back in charge of their state governments.”
In a phone interview with Ring, Rich said, “I believe in free markets. I believe that … government has been growing at an excessive rate, at the federal level and in many states.”
“I’m happy to support local activists who are working to protect property rights in a whole bunch of states.”
Reach Nancy Hicks at 473-7250 or nhicks@journalstar.com.