King of the Referendum

There are three hazards to living in North Dakota, the residents there are fond of saying: blizzards, mosquitoes and Robert McCarney. A millionaire Ford auto dealer, McCarney, 65, is the all-time champion referendum holder in the state. He has forced so many laws to be tested at the polls that he has been referred to as "the fourth branch of state government." His current crusade is to stop North Dakota from spending some $18.5 million for new buildings. Boasts he: "Any benefit to the people of this state has come through my efforts, not the legislature's."

McCarney hitchhiked from Churdan, Iowa, to Bismarck in 1932 with 50-c- in his pocket and stayed to make his fortune selling cars, but the referendum is his game and he has been playing it with skill and delight since 1963. He failed that year to persuade the Republican state legislature not to increase income taxes. Then he discovered a swift way to block the legislation: gather 7,000 signatures and put the issue on the ballot. He collected the petitions, had his referendum, and nixed the tax increase by a margin of 6 to 1.

Success followed success. In 1965 a McCarney referendum canceled another tax package, 4 to 1. In 1969 McCarney defeated plans for a $3.2 million state office building. Last year he scored three times when voters cut the state sales tax from 4% to 3%, ended it on electricity and halved it on farm equipment. In all, the initiatives and referendums cranked out by the crusty and imposing crusader (6 ft. 2 in., 218 lbs.) have saved the state's taxpayers some $200 million, according to his calculations.

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 you can't get it."

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."

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