Ballot Initiative

This new TV ad agsint Prop 2, the California ballot initiative to regulate farm animal confinement., suggests darkly that passage of the initiative would lead to the importing of food from Mexico. Egg farmers, who say their businesses could not survive tighter regulation (chickens would have to be able to stand up and walk around), have been waging a campaign against the measure with arguments that food will be more expensive and less safe if Prop 2 passes. Those are fair arguments, but this new ad goes too far. 

Californians already eat all kinds of food produced in Mexico. We eat food from all over the world. But the ad only mentions Mexico, a tactic that appears designed to capitalize on uninformed stereotypes about eating and drinking south of the border.

This story from today's Sacramento Bee shows the success that Prop 8 and its campaign consultant, Frank Schubert have had in reframing the question posed by the initiative to ban same-sex marriage. One would think the central question of a campaign to ban such marriages would be the simple one of whether such couples deserve the legal recognition of marriage. But in California, that question seems to be a political loser for those who support the ban. So, faced with a political problem, opponents of same-sex marriage have attempted to expand the question by asking what legal same-sex marriage might mean for other parts of society.

The ballot initiative process includes professional signature gatherers, professional pollsters, professional consultants, professional initiative drafters and professional direct mail folks. Today the LA Times has a report on a new direct democracy professional: those who pray and fast as a full-time occupation. In a long but worth-its-length story this morning, the paper reports on people in La Mesa, California, who have been praying since last month (apparently with few breaks and without departing the church) for Prop 8, the California initiative to ban same-sex marriage.

Redistricting reform is always a tough sell--too complicated, and the partisan voters on both sides are too skeptical. But Prop 11, the California initiative to take the power to draft legislative districts away from the legislature, has the best chance of any such measure. As opposed to 2005, when a redistricting reform initiative failed badly under an onslaught from public employee unions, the opposition this time is relatively weak and poorly funded. But the initiative has far less than majority support in public polls. Why? The campaign messaging is a mess. 

What's the problem? The campaign's ads are anti-politician blasts at the legislature for their many sins. Press conference seek to gin up populist anger. But this message doesn't match the reality of the measure and the folks leading the campaign. The most prominent backer is, of all things, an unpopular politician -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who is today getting attention for fundraising he's doing in Florida for the measure. And the campaign is even boasting of the support of non-Californian politicians such as New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The billionaire mayor was accurately called a hypocrite in the New York press this week for coming to Los Angeles to campaign  for Prop 11 (becaues of the importance of the will of the people) even as he seeks to avoid a popular referendum on a plan that would extend term limits and permit him to run for a third term as mayor. 

The San Francisco Chronicle politics blog reports that the latest campaign finance report for the yes side of Proposition 8, the California initiative to ban same-sex marriage, was so long that it couldn't be uploaded onto the state's web site. The report ran to more than 5,000 pages.

The Yes on 8 campaign appears to have some momentum. But it still has yet to reach a majority of voters i nthe polls.

Mercy for Animals, which advocates veganism, has released eight minutes of footage it says was taken at Norco Ranch in Menifee, California. The video is above. It's not for the squeamish. It's also designed to advance Prop 2, the California ballot initiative regulating how farm animals are confined. The No on 2 campaign has said the farm in the video was inspected by Riverside county and found to meet standards.

I've spent the past 24 hours in Sacramento. The main piece of scuttlebut, from several sources: that Gov. Schwarzenegger, as part of the special election he's expected to call next year (likely fall), will pursue an initiative that would put in place the health care compromise he reached with then-Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez in late 2006.

This raises all kinds of questions. One is a practical question: how to turn massive legislation into an initiative short enough that signature gatherers won't hurt their backs carrying it around California? Others are: 1. how the initiative might be structured to reduce the budget impact, given the international economic crisis and the state's budget woes. 2. And what kind of counter-initiatives might liberal groups such as the California Nurses Assn. (advocates of single payer) or more conservative groups (who don't like the fees or the mandates in Schwarzenegger's plan) pursue on the same ballot?

Tomorrow (Tuesday, Oct. 14), Oprah Winfrey devotes her show to a look at how farm animals are treated, with a look at Prop 2, the California ballot initiative on farm animal confinement.

Measure 47, the November ballot initiative to make Colorado a "right to work" state, has so many opponents (labor and business leaders are both opposing it after a recent deal) that it's become something of a political orphan. The Rocky Mountains News, unable to get a clear answer about how the initiative came to be, has turned up legal documents showing its origins.

The Utah Supreme Court this week undermined a new state law that had sought to bar citizens from qualifying local ballot initiatives on land use questions. In the first challenge to the law, the court ruled that a local initiative in Sevier County, Utah, could go on the ballot in spite of the law. The initiative would give voters the right to decide whether any electricity plant fueled by coal is built in the area. A company has been trying to build such a plant for years.