How big money impacts legislation from grass roots petitions.
https://allthewebnews.com/its-not-just-voting-rights-republicans-are-going-after-ballot-campaigns/
sort of lefty slanted article but has both sides.
"The Republicans behind these measures brush off criticism that they’re taking away power from constituents as punishment for voters supporting progressive policies. They counter that the influence of out-of-state interest groups that run these ballot campaigns has gotten out of control and they don’t truly represent the interest of voters and therefore more requirements should be implemented to maintain integrity in the process.
In 2018, for example, the national group Fairness Project spent $6 million to support Medicaid initiatives that passed at the ballot box in Idaho, Nebraska and Utah. In 2020, the group spent nearly $700,000 on Medicaid expansion campaigns in Oklahoma and Missouri. The nonprofit is funded through grants, institutional donors like labor unions and individual contributions. And in 2020, marijuana advocates vastly outraised their opponents, supported by national groups like New Approach PAC and liberal dark money group the North Fund. Medicaid proponents have similarly outraised their opponents, and much of that funding came from local donors like hospital associations and individual health systems.
Ballot campaigners say that Republicans are actually the ones responsible for those high costs because they’re applying more rules to the process, driving up expenses. A typical campaign in Missouri costs close to $2 million just to get an issue on the ballot because of costs like hiring staff, printing flyers and airing advertisements, said Ron Berry, a Missouri lobbyist and political consultant for ballot initiatives. To get on upcoming ballots in 2022 and 2024, campaigns must gather more than 171,000 signatures for constitutional amendments and more than 107,000 for statutes and referendums."
This is what happens when something good is thwarted and taken out of the hands of local citizens- big money begets complexity that begets more big money. This what happens when people try to game the system and everyone loses.