The Most Controversial Man in Oregon

For 14 years, Sizemore has proposed more than 100 ballot initiatives in Oregon.

ByABC News
October 28, 2008, 2:00 PM

Oct. 28, 2008 — -- With his business casual attire and slightly shaggy hair, Bill Sizemore looks like a regular guy. But he is the focus of a multimillion dollar campaign of negative attack ads -- and he's not even a politician.

Sizemore is what's called a "ballot-ician." Over the past 14 years, the former businessman has filed more than a hundred ballot initiatives, on everything from property taxes to education to home construction.

As he showed me stacks paper containing rows of petition signatures neatly piled up on desk, I asked him, "Do you sit around the house and dream this stuff up and then write it?"

"Yes," he said. "That's how it happens."

Sizemore had five initiatives on the ballot during the election, including one that would lower state taxes, one that would give merit pay to teachers and one that would allow homeowners to do $35,000 worth of renovations to their homes without getting a permit.

"I have strong convictions about basic issues," he said. "Things like property rights, lower taxes. I think issues like that are moral issues."

In his attempt to change Oregon's laws, however, Sizemore -- who's a self-described conservative -- has made a powerful and diverse coalition of enemies. Their basic argument is that Sizemore's initiatives may sound good at first glance but are usually so vaguely worded and ill-conceived that they would have enormously negative consequences.

This year, as they do every year, Sizemore's opponents -- led by the state public employee unions -- mounted a multimillion dollar campaign against Sizemore's initiatives, including television ads and an anti-Sizemore Web site.

Members of the Oregon teachers' union said Sizemore's education initiatives would hurt students.

"He has no experience in education," public school teacher Jen Murray said. "He writes these initiatives where he doesn't have to deal with the consequences, whereas all Oregonians in public school will."

Sizemore's critics say he's motivated not only by his conservative philosophy but also by money.