Word: mccarney
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Every state in the Union is in dire need of a "king of the referendum" such as the North Dakotans are blessed with in the person of Millionaire Robert McCarney [June 13]. He saved his state's taxpayers some $200 million...
...McCarney, "king of the referendum," is more than a politician's foe. He's the foe of everyone interested in more than immediate monetary gain. Those buildings mentioned so casually in your article are desperately needed university facilities. If McCarney had his way, our state universities would simply be starved of funds till they died a natural death...
Running Rabbit. Ironically, McCarney himself cannot win public office. A maverick Republican, he has triumphed in primaries only to lose one election after another from 1964 until 1974-although in 1970 he came within 528 votes of winning a seat in Congress...
What drives McCarney to organize his referendums? Partly his own irrepressibility. "I'm like a rabbit in the middle of a field," he chuckles. "No one knows which way I'm going to run next." But he claims he does it mainly because someone has to stand up for what's right-and he's spent $250,000 of his own funds in the process. "If you keep your money and the government needs it," he says, "the government can always get it. But if the government has your money and you need it, then...
Many legislators argue that McCarney's referendums have cut back progressive programs, like state-supported kindergartens, but McCarney remains unshaken. People, he says, "can't afford to pay more taxes. If something isn't done, it's going to destroy the home, and eventually it's going to destroy America...