Date:         Thu, 9 Jun 1994 09:48:24 EDT
From: BoiseBear@AOL.COM

Reprinted without permission from the Idaho Statesman
[Boise]  Thursday, June 9, 1994

ICA, opponents focus on taking messages to the masses

By Marianne Flagg
The Idaho Statesman

Kelly Walton and his opponents are adopting the same
strategy as the petition deadline nears to qualify an
anti-gay initiative for the November ballot:  Go where
the people are.

Walton's Idaho Citizens Alliance, the force behind the
initiative, and its key opposition, Don't Sign On, will
dispatch volunteers to the Boise River Festival and
other events in southern Idaho.

On Wednesday, ICA Chairman Walton said he's
holding 20,813 verified signatures of Idaho voters.
The ICA needs 32,061 signatures by July 8.

"I would call our chances right now 60-40 (that) we'll
do it," Walton said.  "It's just an all-out blitz.  We
are literally searching for every warm body out there
to carry a (petition) sheet."

Walton said the ICA has received a total of 33,780
signatures -- of which 20,813 have been verified.
Some of the unverified signatures have been sent to
county clerks but haven't been processed.

An Idaho Falls Post-Register survey this week of
county clerks found about 17,000 signatures have
been verified.

Walton said overall about 71 percent of his signatures
are declared valid.  At that rate, he needs a little
more than 45,000 signatures total to ensure a
qualifying number.

In addition to the Boise River Festival (last year's
attendance was an aggregate 616,000), his workers
will head to Meridian Dairy Days next weekend and
to Burley's speedboat regatta the same weekend
as the River Festival (June 23-26).

He also expects an 11-th hour burst on the Fourth
of July, although he said many of those signatures,
if gathered, might not be verified in time.

Brian Bergquist, co-chairman of Don't Sign On, said
his anti-initiative workers will cover much of the same
ground.  "We're going to be taking every opportunity
available to educate people on the impact of the
initiative.  I think that's our job at this point -- to point
out what it does as far as job discrimination and
censorship."

Representatives of Don't Sign On will begin their
final push on Saturday at a gay pride prade and
rally in downtown Boise.

The initiative would prevent the state from allowing
gays to be included as a group for civil rights
protections, called minority status in the initiative.

It also would prevent the state from using funds
to promote or express approval of homosexuality.

Signatures must be verified by the county clerks
of the areas where they are gathered.  Then they
are returned to initiative backers, who turn them
into the secretary of State's office.

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Submitted by Robert Shaffer
BoiseBear@aol.com