Latest GOP power grab worse than you think

The boiler plate explanation for the assault on the initiative process is tit-for-tat. It goes like this: Voters approved a minimum-wage initiative that GOP lawmakers and their corporate sponsors don’t like, so the state’s power elite is going to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

That is true. But what’s happening goes much deeper. It is much more significant.

This is a power grab. The second big one in two years.

The Legislature, the governor’s office and all the other statewide elected offices are firmly in GOP control.

Last year, GOP lawmakers sent Gov. Doug Ducey a bill with XOXO kisses that expanded the state Supreme Court from five to seven justices – despite the insistence of the chief justice that the court didn’t need any more justices and the state should save the money.

Ducey got to name the new justices, giving him powerful sway over how the philosophical winds will blow across Arizona’s high court.

Republicans now hold all three branches of government.

But there remains one big check on this seemingly absolute power.

The state Constitution provides a way for people to bypass the ruling party and write their own laws.

It’s called the citizens’ initiative process. It’s our right under the state Constitution, and it is a powerful tool.

Over the years, it’s been used to do things the majority of Arizonans wanted but weren’t getting from the Legislature. These things include a dedicated fund for early childhood programs, a ban on payday loans and expanded health care for poor, as well as bans on leghold traps, cruel farming practices and cockfighting.

Initiatives gave Arizona a dedicated funding for state parks (since raided and redirected by the Legislature), an independent redistricting system