Advertise Here

Deliver your message to thousands of readers every day.

Our readers are influential opinion makers - politicians, journalists and activists.

Our latest headlines

Attorney General Brown Announces Largest Predatory Lending Settlement in History: $8.68 Billion in Home Loans and Foreclosures Relief Nationally—Up to $3.5 Billion to Californians—From Countrywide Financial Corporation
Hannah-Beth Jackson Has the Goods on Tony Strickland in Pivotal California Senate Seat Race
Proposition 5: We Need to Fix the Drug Court System
Turning a Red California District Blue: Is the Third Time a Charm for Ferial Masry and the Sixth Seat for Democrats to Gain Two-Thirds in the Assembly?
The Heller Gun Decision Week 14 – The U.S. Senate Holds H.R. 6842 and California Holds SB 327
Cavala: Competitive Legislative Seats Do Not Produce “Moderate” Lawmakers
In California’s 5th Senate District Race Democrat Wolk Should Win

About Us

The California Progress Report is published by Frank D. Russo, a longtime observer of and participant in California politics.

About Frank Russo.
About California Progress Report.

Got a news tip? Want to write a guest column? Contact Frank here.

Books

Initiatives and More Initiatives Filling Up the 2008 California Ballot.

By Hannah Beth Jackson

One initiative that won’t be cluttering up the ballot, at least not the June ballot, is the attempt by the big business interests in California to squelch the right of the little guy to sue for violations of law under the state’s important class action system. Led by the corporate big-wigs at Intel, they were hoping to sneak this little dandy passed a sleeping electorate in June, 2008. But as more and more significant and controversial measures get dumped into the June ballot, the public’s attention will be redrawn to that election. Thinking the better of trying to eliminate hard-fought rights for the public, CJAC, the moniker big business hides behind, announced this week that they were pulling the initiative from the ballot. They did leave open, however, another attempt which there is little doubt they will try when they think the time is right and the public isn’t paying attention. But we will be...

Another possible unclogging of the ballot comes in a most unexpected place. One of the key motivators of this entire legislative year, it is asserted, has been the legislative leadership’s attempt to expand the term-limits law to allow them to serve additional terms (and then reduce terms for each subsequent batch of legislators). The goal has been to get the measure on the February ballot so the current but otherwise termed-out members and leaders can extend the length of their service. But something may have happened on the way to the Ball. It seems that not enough signatures have met the qualifications test and thus the initiative may not make it onto the ballot in time to save the terms of the current members. If the measure fails to make the Feb 5th ballot, it would be a huge blow to those who were hoping for an opportunity to extend their lengths of service.

For more on this story, check out the the first and the second article by the Sac Bee.

In order to seal the deal, (should the Secretary of State certify the number of signatures before the September 20th deadline to secure a place on the ballot for the February ballot), Nunez is frantically trying to put a redistricting bill together. For the term limits/extension measure to pass, many believe that the Governor needs to lend his support to it. He’s made it clear that he won’t unless a redistricting measure accompanies it. While there are many moving parts to this idea—(think Congress), the Speaker is trying frantically to push this idea through the final two weeks as well.

Last, but by no means insignificant-at least in terms of controversy, is the initiative being pushed by Senator Perata which would put the Iraqi War issue on the ballot. Although only “advisory”, this would allow the people of California to weigh in on whether we should withdraw our troops from Iraq immediately. Cynics believe this is just an attempt to bring out more disaffected Democrats to vote on the term-limits initiative (which the polls say they support). Perata says it gives the voters an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with the War and give voice to their concerns.

The measure has passed both houses of the legislature on the predictable party-line. It’s certainly hard to believe there isn’t a single Republican who thinks this disastrous occupation shouldn’t come to an end, but there it is. Of course, the only Republican whose opinion matters at this point is the Governors. As the bill is now on his desk, the conventional wisdom is that he’ll veto it since he’s taken the Republican line all along on the war. No matter that it’s inconsistent with his mantra of “power to the people” and that the people should be allowed to decide on matters of importance. But hypocrisy seems to run deep on the “R” side of the aisle these days, not that they have a monopoly on it---just that they seem to have perfected it during the Bush years. With little upside to the Governor, (who is having enough trouble getting along with his party these days), a veto is the more likely probability here.

Hannah-Beth Jackson is a former Assemblymember who served in the California Assembly from 1998-2004. She Chaired the Assembly Committee on Environmental Safety, the Committee on Natural Resources as well as the Legislative Women's Caucus.

After term limits and redistricting forced her out of office, she helped start Speak Out California and serves as its President. Speak Out California is a progressive internet site envisioned by California's progressive leaders to effectively craft the issues and messages that will encourage public participation in bringing new ideas and vision to California's political landscape.

Posted on September 03, 2007

Comments

Schwarzenegger will not campaign against term limits no matter what happens on redistricting (the next group of legislative leaders may not be so compliant). He may not endorse it, but so what? The only reason that term limits will pass is that voters see it as "punishing" the legislature.
Schwarzenegger would have to explain why it wouldn't punish the legislature--too complicated an argument, and too nastily directed against the very person (Nunez) he's trying to get cooperation with on health care.

The electoral votes by congressional district should convince all Democrats and independents that the Republicans will do anything to give themselves an advantage. Why should the Democrats give up this one advantage when all others are against the Democrats and the Repubicans will continue to try and rig elections (expect a photo id requirement for voting next--people are well conditioned by it for flying).

Posted by: publius at September 3, 2007 01:03 PM

Get Email Updates

Want the California Progress Report by email? Once a week, we'll send you the latest and greatest headlines.

Stat tracker