No Lack of Initiative : Recession Brings New Class of Worker to Signature-Gathering Trade

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to gather signatures for state ballot measures. But how about an unemployed aerospace project engineer, such as Robert Freiman of Woodland Hills?

These days, the bespectacled Freiman trolls the entryway of a busy San Fernando Valley supermarket, making ends meet by hitting up registered voters for signatures aimed at qualifying initiatives on school tuition vouchers and welfare reduction for the November ballot.

“I need the money,” said Freiman, 40, between attempts at corralling shoppers as they exited a Vons on Ventura Boulevard. “I’m down to nothing.”

As the Friday signature-gathering deadline for the fall election approaches, paid petitioners such as Freiman are becoming as familiar a sight outside bustling shopping centers across California as cookie-toting Girl Scouts.

Hired through newspaper ads, the independent contractors are offered from 25 to 55 cents per signature by political consulting firms seeking to collect the huge numbers of endorsements required to qualify measures for the ballot--384,973 for statute initiatives and 615,958 for constitutional amendments.

With a near-record 31 propositions in circulation, the last-minute surge of petition-gathering is particularly frenetic this spring.

Outside busy Target department stores in Los Angeles County, paid petitioners arrive even before the doors open to lay claim to the concrete “turf.” To maximize their income, most handle three to seven initiatives--in some cases, philosophically conflicting ones sponsored by competing conservative and liberal groups.

Other odd wrinkles abound.

For one, the recession has dramatically upgraded the caliber of signature gatherers--resulting in fewer cases where consultants, who check the work, are forced to fire petitioners for engaging in sloppy circulating techniques or outright forgery.

“Our (signature) validity rates are several points higher than usual because the quality of the people is much higher,” said Kelly Kimball, owner of the Northridge-based Kimball Petition Management Inc., one of California’s leading initiative consulting firms.

“We (used to) hire anybody not a felon (who was) age 18 or older,” Kimball said. “(Now) we have out-of-work accountants, aerospace and auto workers.”

That, in turn, has led to the odd spectacle of laid-off white-collar workers quietly supplementing their unemployment insurance benefits by gathering signatures for Gov. Pete Wilson’s measure to slash welfare payments by 25%.

Moreover, the state’s first “anti-signature” campaign is in full swing this spring.

Leaflet-laden California Teachers Assn. members--fearful that passage of the school voucher initiative would lead to the demise of public schools--have taken to the shopping centers, shadowing petition gatherers and attempting to persuade voters to withhold support.

Leaders of the 230,000-member teachers union maintain that many of those asked to sign the measure either have no idea of the specifics or are being misled by signature-greedy petitioners.

“What the (voters are) shown is the tip of the iceberg,” said Los Angeles special education teacher James Duffy, who has spent recent weekends tailing petition-signers on the Santa Monica Promenade and Ocean Front Walk in Venice. “(All) they’re being told is this initiative will upgrade education.”

Indeed, the language on the voucher petition does not specify that if it is approved, the state would no longer pay for the upkeep of public schools but would instead provide each school-age child with a $2,500 “scholarship” to be used in the school of the parents’ choice--private, church-run or public.

Leaders of the Excellence Through Choice in Education League (EXCEL), the measure’s sponsoring organization, acknowledge that the union’s strategy has slowed efforts to obtain the required 615,958 signatures.

Consequently, EXCEL has been forced to supplement its paid petitioning program by gathering signatures the old-fashioned way: volunteers. In this case, parents of private and religious school students are gathering signatures.

“The (public school teachers) can’t get at the volunteers because they go door to door or talk to friends or whatever,” said EXCEL President David J. Harmer. “That effort is picking up steam really nicely.”

By and large, such volunteer efforts are a throwback to the heady days leading up to anti-tax Proposition 13.

EXCEL officials have budgeted $1.3 million to place their voucher measure on the ballot. That pales in comparison to the cost of waging a campaign once an initiative has qualified for a statewide vote.

In 1990, five major liquor lobbyists led by Anheuser-Busch spent more than $17 million to defeat a measure that would have hiked the state alcohol tax.

Paid signature gatherers earn from $30 to $90 a day, but are an essential cog in the machine.

As a rule, they set up shop in crowded locations, such as supermarket entryways and movie theater ticket lines. But each petitioner employs his own distinct pitch.

Robert Cuthbertson, a disabled aircraft mechanic, plunks down a plywood table outside a Target store in Culver City. The table is festooned with red, white and blue signs that advertise the three initiatives he is pushing.

“Stop the snack tax. Sign this petition and put it on the ballot,” reads a poster on his perch outside a store stocking large quantities of snack foods.

Cuthbertson, 49, reinforces the message on passing shoppers. “You’re being taxed on that candy bar you’re eating here,” he advises one woman, who replies: “Thank God, I don’t eat that much candy.” She proceeds to sign the petition.

Cuthbertson, who earns $30 to $40 an afternoon, also circulates initiatives calling for term limits for California’s congressional delegation and for an employer-paid, bare-bones health care coverage system for full-time California workers.

“If I don’t agree with it, I don’t circulate it,” he said.

Freiman, a registered Democrat, has fewer compunctions about circulating Republican-sponsored initiatives such as Wilson’s welfare measure.

“I have only $40 left in my checking account,” he said succinctly.

Dressed in a Hawaiian shirt and acid-washed jeans, Freiman, who in recent months has also sold computer parts and condoms marketed in novelty packages, takes a casual and somewhat indirect approach to greeting the public.

“Hi. Can I ask you for some civic help today?” asks the soft-spoken electrical engineer.

Those who stop are offered few details about the complicated measures he is pushing.

On the welfare proposal, Freiman states: “This is to reduce welfare fraud.”

As for the school voucher measure, he vaguely informs shoppers that it is designed to allow parents to send their children to adjacent school districts.

“I don’t even know what the voucher system means,” Freiman admits to a reporter.

As time runs out for the November ballot, the Vons in Tarzana has become a veritable petition-gathering bazaar.

One recent afternoon, three paid petitioners, Freiman included, patrolled the entrance, seeking signatures on initiatives ranging from welfare cuts to health care hikes.

The flurry of pitches appeared to annoy some patrons. But within a few minutes, Freiman and fellow petitioner Roberto Reeves had persuaded shopper Marion Hochstadter to sign five measures.

“This is very unusual, to be attacked by so many different ones,” the retired West Hills sales representative said good-naturedly. “But I sign if it’s something that I’m interested in.”

Later, Freiman persuaded Reeves, who was circulating more liberal petitions, to add his signature to the welfare reduction initiative Freiman was carrying.

“I agree we should have an investigation into keeping welfare fraud down,” Reeves, 31, a part-time deli manager, said to a reporter.

Reeves remained unfazed when informed that the measure would slash welfare benefits to all recipients.

“Once it’s on the ballot, you’ll see the pros and cons,” he replied. “And that’s when you’ll make your ultimate decision.”