▪ Eminent Domain Reform a Big Winner

Professor Ilya Somin has posted a summary of the Kelo-fueled voter measures:

Why are the anti-Kelo referendum initiatives so much more effective than most of their legislative cousins? I suspect because the former are usually drafted by property rights activists rather than by state legislators. As I discuss in more detail in the posts linked above, politicians often have incentives to give voters the impression that they are "reforming" eminent domain without actually doing so. Activist groups have few if any such incentives and the reforms they draft are therefore likely to have fewer loopholes and be more effective in eliminating economic development takings.

Despite not getting enough votes to pass in California and Idaho, overall, it looks like the property rights issue received a big stamp of approval from the public. 

How about Hawaii?  Last session, the legislature did not pass any of the four eminent domain reform measures proposed after Kelo, and Hawaii law does not permit statewide initiative or referendum.  The only way to get a measure on a statewide ballot is a constitutional amendment, most of which originate in the Legislature.