Coming to a Voting Booth Near You...
By Pete Schrag
California Progress Report Columnist
Unless the weak array of other candidates sucks Dianne Feinstein into the race for governor – you can take that verb in several ways, all descriptive – the most important decision for voters next year may not be the Tweedle-dee vs. Tweedle-dum run for governor.
It could be the contest over one or several of the 76 initiatives – yes 76 -- that may appear on the same ballot. Some are promising. Some are awful. Some are initiatives voters have rejected before, in some cases not long ago, that seem to be designed largely to harass and force opponents to spend resources they could otherwise spend in other ways.
Feinstein told Channel 5 in San Francisco earlier this month that her decision on the governor’s race will depend on “what precise programs are put forward by various candidates to handle what is a very serious structural budget deficit in this state…It's of major consequence and California is in considerable distress, and there have to be reforms."
Given what we know now about the candidates, she’s in.
Still, it can’t be an easy choice. If she ran, Feinstein would probably win, but except for the commute to and from Washington, her seat in the Senate would be hard to give up. For the first time in years, she chairs a key committee and is a member of a majority with a president of her own party pursuing an important program.
Yet she’ll be 77 next year, meaning that if she’s elected, it would almost certainly be her last major public office, and given the fiscal and governmental mess that California has worked itself into, not a promising way to end a great career.
The very things that would almost certainly make her far and away the best candidate for the job – perhaps the only candidate with a chance of changing California’s self-destructive course – are also the things that would make any reasonable person think twice before asking for it.
This is California’s Catch-22: any person big enough for the job would have to be crazy to take it.
At the same time, the mess that might bring Feinstein into governor’s race is also spawning what may yet be a record number of ballot proposals. Many of the 76, among them 33 that have been cleared for circulation and 43 still being reviewed for title and summary by the attorney general’s office, will never make it to the ballot. But some will.
Some, as always, are silly or utopian, vanity ventures for people with a cause – or maybe just a grim sense of humor - and $200 to spare for a filing fee.
On this year’s list of marginalia: putting an end to divorce; mandatory drug and alcohol testing for members of the legislature; requiring schools to offer Christmas music during the holiday season; the creation of “special constitutional rule for speech based on the Bible; the creation of a huge “wealth tax” on the rich.
The wealth tax, in the words of the straight-faced official analysis, could result in a “one-time increase in state revenues potentially in the low hundreds of billions of dollars…and ongoing increase in state revenues potentially in the tens of billions of dollars from imposition of the tax on certain people dying or leaving the state.”
But beyond the deciduous marginalia, there’s a near-bumper crop of reform proposals and other substantive measures, some promising, some really ugly stuff.
In the first category, several initiatives rolling back the corporate tax give-aways that Sacramento’s much-too-compliant Democratic leaders agreed to as part of one of the recent budget deals; a redundancy of marijuana legalization and taxation measures of which presumably no more than one will get to the ballot, and a similar multiplicity of initiatives granting same-sex couples the right to marry.
Also: a measure reducing the legislative margins required to pass a budget or raise taxes from the current two-thirds to a simple majority; another that would change the margin from two-thirds to three-fifths; a measure replacing the current legislative term limits, now six years in the Assembly and eight in the Senate to 12 years total, which may be served in either house or in a combination of the two. It would not apply to any current legislator.
Also a measure amending Proposition 13 to restore more control to local city, county and school district voters who could, subject to strict accounting and other conditions, enact certain taxes on real property by a 55 percent margin.
On the list of uglies: An initiative that would deny a regular birth certificate to the U.S. born child of an illegal immigrant and effectively deny all public benefits to the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants, which may well be unconstitutional; another that would require voters to show a government issued photo ID and on mail ballots provide a driver’s license or Social Security number; also. two measures creating a half-time legislature.
Also: at least two initiatives that voters have rejected several times before and that seem primarily designed to harass opposing groups by forcing them to spend money that they could spend more usefully for other purposes.
One is yet another anti-abortion measure requiring physicians to notify the parents of minors before they can perform an abortion. The other is yet another run at a “paycheck protection act” similar to several similar likewise previously rejected by voters, that would require public sector unions to get the annual consent of every member before the member’s dues could be used for political purposes.
How many of those proposals, or many others, will appear on the ballot depends almost entirely on the amount their proponents have to spend. A legislative committee is now holding hearings on various governmental reforms.
One that it’s considering is some provision to reduce the endless re-submission of virtually identical ballot measures. If anything deserves to be enacted, if only to reduce the nuisance, this is it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Peter Schrag, whose exclusive weekly column appears every Wednesday for the California Progress Report, is the former editorial page editor and columnist of the Sacramento Bee. He is the author of Paradise Lost: California’s Experience, America’s Future and California: America’s High Stakes Experiment. His new book, Not Fit for Our Society: Nativism, Eugenics, Immigration will be published early in 2010.
- kaldveer's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Printer-friendly version
Send to friend


Personally, if you can own one, which can reflect your personal status, don’t it?
Of course, you can become more attractive when you walk in the public. And more people want you to give you a glance. Do you want have a try, and show yourself? links of london jewellery
links london
links of london jewelry
I have to stop now; can you give me your comments about it? Here we would like to share the good opinions with you happily. At the same time, I am looking forward to your good news.links of london sweetie bracelet
Air Force One Shoes
Air Jordan Shoes
Air Max Shoes
Air Yeezy Shoes
Air Dunk Shoes
Air Shox Shoes
Air Force One Canvas Women
Air Force One Canvas Men
Air Force One High Women
Air Force One High Men
Air Force One Low Men
Air Force One Low Women
Air Force One New Styles
Nike Air Max 2003 Women
Nike Air Max 2003 Men
Nike Air Max 2009 Men
Nike Air Max 2009 Women
Nike Air Max 90 Men
Nike Air Max 90 Women
Nike Air Max 95 Men
Nike Air Max CLASSIC BW Men
Nike Air Max CLASSIC BW Women
Nike Air Max CLASSIC BW Kid
Air Yeezy Men
Air Yeezy Women
Nike Dunk High Kid
Nike Dunk Low Kid
Nike Dunk High Men
Nike Dunk High Women
Nike Dunk Low Men
Nike Shox Shoes
Nike Shox NZ Men
Nike Shox NZ Women
Nike Shox OZ Men
Nike Shox OZ Women
Nike Shox R2 Men
Nike Shox R2 Women
Nike Shox R4 Men
Nike Shox R3 Men
Nike Shox R4 New Women
Nike Shox R4 New Men
Nike Shox R4 Women
Nike Shox R6 Men
Nike Dunk Low Men
Air Force One New Styles
air max shoes
buy air max
air max shoes sale
cheap air max shoes
discount air max shoes
air force one shoes
nike air force one
air force one sale
air jordan
air jordan shoes
buy air jordan
air jordan sale
air yeezy shoes
nike air yeezy
air yeezy sale
nike dunk
nike dunk sale
cheap nike dunk
discount dunks
nike shox
shox shoes
buy shox shoes
alife shoes
alife shoes cheap
buy alife shoes
Shmack Shoes
Shmack Shoes sale
CR shoes
buy CR shoes
MAD shoes
ACG Air Max Foamdome Men Shoes
ACG Air Max
Air Max 2003
Air Max 2003 Women
Air Max 2009 Men
Air Max 2009 Men Leather SI
Air Max 2009 Women
Air Max 90 Kid
Air Max 90 Boot
Air Max 90 Men
Air Max 95 Women
Air Max Zenyth Men Shoes
Air Structure Triax 91 Men Shoes
Air Structure Triax
Nike Air Classic BW Kid Shoes
Nike Air Classic BW Men Shoes
Nike Air Classic BW Women Shoes
men's air force one
air force one low men shoes
air force one women
air force 1 low
air force 1 high
air force 1 mid
cheap air force 1 kid
low air force one
high air force 1 shoes
mid air force 1 shoes
women nike dunks
men nike dunks
sale cheap nike dunks
dunks sale
low dunks sale
high dunk sale
boys dunk shoes
wholesale dunks
dunks online
dunks nike
hot sell dunks
girls nike dunks
air force ones sale
cheap air force 1
women air force one
men air force one
boys air force one shoes
girls air force ones shoes
air force one shoes online
air force one online store
sale air yeezy shoes
air yeezy shoes sale
cheap air yeezy
discount air yeezy shoes
nike air yeezy shoes
wholesale nike shoes
buy alife shoes
air force one shoes
air jordan shoes
air max shoes
air yeezy shoes
supra shoes
alife shoes
creative recreation shoes
madfoot predator shoes
shmack shoes
basketball shoes
nike dunks
nike shox
nike air force ones
cheap air force ones shoes
discount air force one
cheap air jordan
discount air jordan
cheap air max
discount air max
cheap nike dunks
discount nike dunk
cheap nike shox shoes
discount nike shox shoes
cheap alife shoes
discount alife shoes
cheap supra shoes
discount supra shoes
James Shoes
James Basketball Shoes
Nike Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant
air force one low
men's air force 1s shoes
air force ones high
nike air force 1s men's shoes
air force ones kid shoes
kid air force 1
air force one kid's shoes
air force one high women
womens' air force 1s
air force ones low womens' shoes
nike air jordan shoes
jordan shoes
air jordan 2010
jordan 25
nike air max shoes
cheap air max shoes
buy air max shoes
womens air max shoes
mens air max shoes
air max 2003 shoes
cheap air max 2003
womens air max 2003
air max 2009 shoes
mens air max 2009 shoes
buy cheap air max 2009
air max 90 boots
cheap air max 90 boot
buy max 90 boot
air max 90 shoes
men air max 90
nike air max 90 mens' shoes
women air max 90 shoes
nike max 90 womens shoes
air max zenyth shoes
buy air max zenyth
Structure Triax 91
Cheap Structure Triax 91
nike air max 95
air max 95 mens shoes
womens nike air max 95
cheap air max 95
nike air max classic bw
air max classic bw
womens air max classic bw
mens air max classic bw
nike air yeezy shoes
cheap air yeezy shoes
air yeezy on sale
nike dunk
buy nike dunks
nike dunk cheap
dunks low
mens nike dunk low shoes
nike dunks mid men shoes
nike dunk mid
nike dunk high
high nike dunks
men's nike dunk hi
women's nike dunk low
dunks low womens' shoes
kid nike dunks shoes
nike dunk hi kid
dunk low kid shoes
cheap nike shox shoes
shox shoes
women's nike shox shoes
mens' nike shox
nike shoes r2
men's nike shox r2
womens' nike shox r2
shox r2
buy cheap shox r2 shoes
nike shox oz
mens' nike shox oz
cheap shox oz
women's shox oz shoes
shox oz womens shoes
nike shox nz
mens' shox nz
nike shox nz mens shoes
women shox nz
nike shox r3
shox r3
buy cheap shox r3
men's nike shox r3
nike shox r3 mens shoes
shox r3 sale
nike shox r4
mens' nike shox r4 shoes
buy nike shox r4
nike shox r4 mens' shoes
shox r4 sale
nike shox r5
men nike shox r5
buy mens' shox r5
shox r5 cheap
shox r5 sale
nike shox r6
shox r6 shoes
mens' shox r6
cheap shox r6 shoes
buy shox r6 mens shoes
nike shox tl
mens nike shox tl
shox tl shoes sale
buy mens' shox tl shoes
supra high shoes
supra shoes low
buy mens supra shoes
cheap supra shoes
discount supra shoes
supra shoes sale
high supra shoes
low supra shoes
alife everybody shoes
alife high shoes
buy alife hi shoes
alife low shoes
alife shoes low
cheap alife shoes
alife shoes sale
men's alife shoes
creative recreation shoes
creative recreation
creative recreation low
creative recreation high
men's cr shoes
buy CR shoes
CR shoes sale
cheap shmack shoes
buy shmack shoes
men's shmack shoes
shmack high shoes
shmack low shoes
shmack hi
madfoot predator shoes
madfoot predator men shoes
cheap madfoot predator
men's madfoot predator
women's madfoot predator shoes
Lebron James Shoes
Cheap Lebron James Shoes
Buy Lebron James Shoes
James Shoes
James Basketball Shoes
Nike Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant
Cheap Nike Kobe Bryant
Nike Kobe Bryant Sale
Nike Kobe Bryant Basketball shoes
buy basketball shoes
cheap basketball shoes
discount basketball shoes
So far the liberal forces that could make a difference with a coordinated ballot initiative campaign in 2010 are in total disarray. Voters are likely to support a roll back of corporate tax giveaways and might support reducing the two-thirds super majority for budget adoption to 60% or even 55% if we had an organized campaign and a consistent message. The Republicans are much more disciplined. The Democrats in the legislature act like whipped dogs, despite their strong majority.
Exactly WHO is in charge right now is actually LESS IMPORTANT than WHAT they are in charge of.
The tax base of California has been destroyed. The taxes coming in are inadequate to support anything remotely resembling the social services we have had previously. It isn't so much a matter of undertaxing the corporations and wealthy people we have - we have taxed many of these people out of existence - or at least out of California.
We need to get those people and businesses back. Until we do, it simply doesn't matter who is in charge of the legislature. Until we get the tax base back all the legislature will be doing is rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic anyway.