Paid signature gatherers hold the key in Missouri's stem cell ballot initiative

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- Shaun Sachs has never held elective office. The 40-year-old former factory worker and doughnut shop employee isn't even registered to vote.

Dressed in corduroy pants, a camouflage hunting jacket, a Brad Smith replica football jersey and a tattered University of Missouri baseball cap, he hardly strikes an imposing figure outside the University of Missouri-Columbia student union.

Appearances aside, Sachs could be one of the most powerful, if little known, figures in Missouri politics this year.

As a paid signature collector, Sachs is part of a close-knit network -- think traveling salesmen or freight-hopping carnival crews -- who will largely determine whether proposed statewide initiatives on stem-cell research, tobacco tax increases and eminent domain limits not only get approved, but whether those measures even make it on the ballot for voter consideration.

In the open-air market that is voter signature gathering, the Millersburg resident and his ilk wield considerable power -- if not passionate political views.

"I'm not an activist or a volunteer. I've got to eat," Sachs said. "It's all about a buck."

That's the going rate for each of the roughly 145,000 signatures Sachs and other paid gatherers need to collect on behalf of the Missouri Coalition for Lifesaving Cures, a group of business leaders, researchers and patient advocates who want to add a state constitutional amendment protecting embryonic stem-cell research and possible treatments.

If he surpasses 500 signatures in a week, the rate for each signature increases to $1.50 a pop.

Sachs is actually an independent contractor for National Petition Management, a Brighton, Mich.-based company paid $120,000 by the coalition in late 2005 as a down payment to ensure that the necessary signatures are collected by the May 9 deadline.

With 16 petitions approved for public circulation by the Secretary of State's office so far this year, and three making the statewide ballot in 2004, Missouri is hardly the leader among states in the initiative arms race.

That distinction is often won by petition-happy California, where more than 60 were approved for circulation in 2005. Signature collection companies there earn millions annually.

But for critics like Jaci Winship, executive director of Missourians Against Human Cloning, which opposes the stem-cell ballot measure, the infusion of moneyed interests into what began as an effort to bring lawmaking closer to the people is cause for concern.

"They will say just about anything," she said, referring to signature collectors. "It's a moneymaking project."

For Robin Acree, a Mexico, Mo., community organizer working to add a Medicaid reform measure to the November statewide ballot, the use of paid signature gatherers is a luxury her group just can't afford.

Using "all volunteers and no big money," the People's Agenda Fund has collected roughly 30 percent of the 105,000 signatures needed, she said. Unlike the stem cell effort, the Medicaid reform proposal is not a proposed change to the state constitution, making the minimum threshold for signatures lower.

"I think we're at an advantage," said Acree, executive director of Grass Roots Organizing. "We're not just collecting signatures ... we're engaging people in an issue they care about."

A signature company offered to help collect those names, said Acree -- for $1 million.

"It's just ridiculous," she said. "We don't have those kind of funds."

Efforts to rein in unsavory signature collectors -- or at least require full, public disclosure -- have arisen in several states, including Maine, Massachusetts and California.

Still, the realities of modern politics dictate that campaigns such as the stem cell research camp use professionals, said Donn Rubin, executive director of the coalition.

"All one is doing is giving Missouri voters the opportunity to have their voices heard," he said. "People are not paid to sign the petition. Everyone is signing the petition voluntarily -- that's what's important."

Lee Albright, president of National Petition Management, says the ultimate choice rests with voters, not the signature gatherers.

"If a petition circulator is out gathering signatures and it's an issue that no one wants to see on the ballot, is that an issue that you would see on the ballot?" he said. "They have the right to sign the petition or not to sign the petition."

Sachs -- who proudly compares himself to a panhandler -- has no qualms telling voters his true motivation. Sometimes, it can help close the deal, he said.

After 10 years of traveling the country and talking to -- or getting ignored or cursed by -- American voters, the previously apolitical Sachs has become a sidewalk political scientist of sorts, with a unique street-level perspective on voter beliefs.

He's also a vocal defender of the First Amendment right to petition, a right he fights to uphold on a near daily basis when confronted by private property owners, police officers and others.

What he has less patience for are those who actually want to read the petition he thrusts in front of them, or engage in a debate over the issues.

Time, after all, is money.

"It's a numbers game," said Sachs, who on a good night can earn $500, minus expenses.

"I don't have time to inform or educate the public," he said. "Just get it on the ballot. You'll have all the way to November to learn all about it."