A Powerful Coalition, Not a Bad Economy, Defeated Boone Pickens’ California Prop 10

By Richard Holober
Executive Director
Consumer Federation of California

Anticipating the post-election day spin coming from T Boone Pickens’ flaks, let’s make one thing perfectly clear: The defeat of Proposition 10 was not due to a sour voter mood regarding the economy.

On the contrary, California voters proved remarkably bullish in spite of the economy and the state’s budget woes, approving three bond measures that will cost the state $23 billion to pay back. This is more than double the $10 billion price tag for Prop 10.

Californians approved Prop 1A (High Speed Rail), Prop 3 (Children's Hospitals) and Prop 12 (Veterans Housing). The costliest, Prop 1A, will cost $19 billion, and won with 52%. Voters trounced Prop 10, which garnered only 40% support.

How do you explain the big gap between Prop 1A and Prop 10? It certainly wasn’t for lack of effort by Mr. Pickens and his political operatives. Prop 1A won with a $2 million campaign. Prop 10 spent $23 million, outspending the Vote No campaign by 130 to 1, and went down in a landslide.

Clearly voters considered much more than the costs of bond measures. They weighed their merits, looked at the endorsements for and against the measures, and made discerning judgments. Voters saw through Prop 10's phony "green" sell job and recognized an outrageous money grab by one corporation and its billionaire owner.

The No on Prop 10 campaign worked hard to build a powerful coalition of major environmental, consumer, business, labor, taxpayer and civic organizations, and won editorial support from 40 newspapers. Our efforts were assisted by the stench of self-dealing coming from the Prop 10 campaign.

Prop 10 was the first test of voter support for the “Pickens Plan.” Mr. Pickens has spent $58 million on national television ads since July promoting his plan. One key component of his plan is the conversion of vehicles to run on natural gas. His ads don’t spell out who pays for this conversion, and who benefits from it.

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