Dear Readers:
It?s Spring again in California which means the start of another raucous election campaign season, especially in the wild world of California initiative politics. Get prepared for an onslaught of TV ads, over-simplified campaign rhetoric and a year in which Californians may vote on more initiatives than in any election in state history.
To help our readers prepare for all this campaign activity we offer some assistance. In this issue of our on-line newsletter we reprint, "Californians 'Take the Initiative' Again", the lead article from our new issue of Democracy in Action, our paper newsletter due in mailboxes next week. With the help of a few of the state?s senior journalists we take a look at what?s hot on the 1998 initiative ballot and what?s really going on beneath the surface. We also make a proposal for how the California media could help voters get beyond campaign spin to "the facts". We hope you enjoy it.
Happy reading!
Jim Shultz
The Democracy Center
WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN 1998
This June voters will decide on nine initiatives. Three will get the most attention. This year?s conservative social cause (in the footsteps of immigration and affirmative action) is the attack on bilingual education, Proposition 227, sponsored by GOP millionaire Ron Unz. Proposition 226, backed by Governor Wilson and wealthy school vouchers advocates, would require unions to get members? permission to spend dues on campaign contributions. Their main motive is to clip the political wings of the California Teachers Association and to tip the scales in favor of corporate contributions. The third hot measure, Proposition 223, would cap school administrative costs at 5% of spending. It is sponsored by the United Teachers of Los Angeles.
There are 64 measures in the qualification pipeline for November. Even if only a fraction make the ballot we are still in for a wild ride. The possibilities include two Wilson initiatives (on juvenile crime and school reform), a tobacco tax to pay for child development programs (sponsored by Hollywood producer Rob Reiner), and others that range from clean air tax credits to a ban on killing and eating horses. Consumer advocates have also launched a last-minute effort for a measure to undo a utility deregulation deal approved by state lawmakers.
The other news is about what isn?t on the ballot this year. Conservative-backed initiatives on gay marriage and teenage abortion fizzled. Senator Diane Feinstein launched a mega-initiative on reforming education, which suspiciously imploded at about the same time as her tentative candidacy for governor. Health care advocates decided not to go to the ballot this year on the hot issue of HMO reform.
BEHIND THE INITIATIVE EXPLOSION
Why all this policy making by initiative? One factor is the inability of the Legislature and Governor to deal with a long list of issues where the public wants action. Partisanship, special interest campaign cash, and term limits have all contributed to political deadlock. "The Legislature is incapable of coming to grips with controversial issues," says George Skelton, veteran columnist for The Los Angeles Times.
Another cause is the rush of politicians into the initiative game. This year, instead of running for Governor again, Ron Unz has an initiative. Diane Feinstein had hers in the wings in case she ran. Pete Wilson, the king of the politician-initiative strategy, is entering his fourth consecutive election season in the lead on high profile ballot measures.
"There is something about an initiative that puts more weight behind a politician?s policy proposals," says Amy Chance, Capitol bureau chief of The Sacramento Bee. Initiatives help politicians link themselves to a popular issue and ballot measures also set the agenda in candidate elections. Proposition 187 converted Wilson?s re-election battle in 1994 from a debate about the economy into a debate about immigration. Two years ago (in a private conference call crashed by a news reporter) Wilson told corporate contributors that supporting Proposition 209 was a backdoor way to support GOP candidates on the same ballot.
DO WE KNOW WHAT WE'RE VOTING ON?
Initiative votes are often expressions of deep public emotion, with little understanding of the actual provisions in the law. Last year a federal court temporarily set aside California?s term limits law on the finding that voters didn?t know what was in it when they approved it. Their decision (which was eventually reversed) may have overreached, but it did raise an important question - do we know what we?re voting on?
One problem is that most of our information comes from paid advertising, which far outshadows news coverage of ballot measures. A few issues, like immigration or affirmative action, may get a lot of attention but others are almost totally ignored. "I think that the media just picks one or two sexy ones," says San Francisco Chronicle columnist Deborah Saunders. In addition, the coverage we do see is much more likely to focus on the politics rather than the actual provisions of the law. In an informal Democracy Center review of 100 recent news articles on the Unz anti-bilingual initiative less than 10% provided any real description of what the initiative would do.
Television and radio coverage is the weakest of all. "Their idea of coverage is a talk show with the two sides arguing with each other," says Skelton of the Times. The shows also usually air between midnight and 6am. TV reporters frequently cover a campaign for just one story, which usually just echoes the spin of either side. In the end media attention is largely limited to campaigns that can buy it.
Yet, despite all the problems and all the complaints about an initiative process "out of control", Californians still like ballot initiatives. An October 1997 California Poll found that ¾ of the voters still believe that having initiatives around is "a good thing". In the last election I brought my daughter Elly in the booth and asked her afterwards what she thought. "I liked the yes/no part," she replied. Most Californians still feel the same way.
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Here?s a simple proposal that would help give voters something we can really use this initiative season - the facts. Newspapers could develop a simple "fact box" (similar to this sample) that would focus on these key points - what the initiative does, who supports it, who opposes it and who are the top money givers to each side. These could run on a regular basis through election day as part of each paper?s coverage. The Democracy Center will send this proposal to the political editors of the state?s leading newspapers and we?ll keep readers posted on what we hear back.
(sample)
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PROPOSITION
227 -BILINGUAL EDUCATION
_______________________________________________________________
What it does: Requires that elementary students be taught
in English-only. Parents requesting bilingual
classes would have to place their children
for the first 30 days of each school year in
English-only classes.
_______________________________________________________________
Supporters: Ron
Unz, Jaime Escalante
Top Contributor:Ron Unz
_______________________________________________________________
Opponents: California
Association for Bilingual Education,
California State PTA
Top Contributor:California Association for Bilingual Education
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