"SHOW ME THE MONEY!"
Volume 17 - September 18, 1998
Dear Readers,
After a short summer break The Democracy Center On-Line is back, with another issue dedicated to the exciting world of California initiative politics. This November California voters will cast their ballots on seven initiatives (plus six additional measures put on the ballot by the Legislature). The initiative topics this fall run the gamut from killing and eating horses to who should pay for the utility industry's bad debts for nuclear power plants.
This newsletter issue focuses on the difficult task of "following the money" and figuring out who is behind all those fancy ads that Californians have started to see every time we flick on the TV. We are in a political season in which we are all destined to know far more about Bill Clinton's sex life than who actually pays for all these ads. If that seems slightly out of balance to you, this issue of The Democracy Center On-Line also gives our readers a direct opportunity to join in on two important campaigns to publicly reveal who's really behind the campaigns so anxious to peddle us their message and so reluctant to tell us who they are.
Happy Reading,
Jim Shultz The Democracy Center
THE NOVEMBER 1998 INITIATIVE BALLOT
"SHOW ME THE MONEY!"
THE OFFICIAL DEMOCRACY CENTER "SHOW ME THE MONEY" QUIZ!
Below are the "official" names of five political committees that Californians can expect to hear a lot from between now and November. Each is expected to spend a healthy amount trying to persuade voters to vote their way on one of the seven initiatives on the November ballot. A few of them will be spending in the "many millions" category on television ads. Under state and federal law, the only identity that these groups have to disclose to voters in their ads is the carefully crafted names listed below. For each, can you pick the real money source from the options listed? [The correct answers are listed at the end of this newsletter.]
1) California for People Pets and Wildlife (NO on 4)
a) The California Farm Bureau
b) The Association for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
c) The National Rifle Association
2) Coalition Against Unregulated Gambling (NO on 5)
a) The Christian Coalition
b) Ceasars Casino
c) Poker Players of America United
3) Californians to Eliminate Violence in Our Schools (YES on 8)
a) California
State PTA
b) Governor Pete
Wilson
c) Southern
California Edison
4) Californians Against Higher Taxes and Higher Electric Rates (NO on 9)
a) Consumers
Union
b) Jim Shultz's
Mother, Selma Shultz
c) Pacific Gas
and Electric
5) Californians Against Unfair Taxes (NO on 10)
a) California
League of Women Voters
b) Atlantic Richfield
Corporation
c) Phillip Morris
Tobacco
How did you do?
GOT DISCLOSURE?
It is a sad fact that initiative campaigning has very little to do with educating voters and everything to do with pushing our emotional hot buttons in an effort to win our votes. Rhetoric and wild charges are plentiful, real information far more scarce. In the circus of claims and counter claims one of the most valuable basic facts a voter can have is about who is behind each YES and NO campaign, and especially who is paying for all those $10,000 to $20,000 a pop TV ads. Surprise, as illustrated above, tobacco makers, big utility companies and others aren't so anxious to put their name out front. Ironic isn't it? Some of these same corporations spend millions trying to put their name on everything from our baseball stadiums to our kids' lunch boxes but they don't want their name on their own political ads.
An obvious solution is to require real disclosure - identify in the ads the actual interest groups that wrote the checks, not some fancy committee name designed to hide who wrote the check. Californians have voted to enact exactly this kind of "real disclosure" - twice - and yet we still don't have it. In 1988 voters approved "real disclosure" in Proposition 105 and we actually had it for the 1990 elections. Voters had the opportunity to learn, for example, that the opponents of an alcohol tax initiative, "Taxpayers for Common Sense", were really Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing. However, bruised interest groups went to court the next year and overturned Proposition 105 on grounds that it addressed too many different issues in one law. Voters again approved "real disclosure" in November 1996 in Proposition 208. That initiative has also been set aside by the court, again for reasons that have nothing to do with the constitutionality of requiring "real disclosure".
GET DISCLOSURE!
This election season there are two citizen efforts underway to get voters the real facts for this November's initiatives:
1) MAKE DISCLOSURE TV STATION POLICY: The first is a coalition effort to persuade TV stations around the state to require real disclosure by their initiative advertisers. Common Cause, the California League of Women Voters, AARP, Consumers Union, CalPIRG and The Democracy Center sent a joint letter two weeks ago to the managers of all of California's local television stations. The letter asks that the stations take the disclosure provisions twice adopted by voters and make them station policy - to require that all campaigns buying airtime on that station list in the ad the two largest donors to the campaign. The California Political Reform Foundation is putting together a Web site where interested voters can get involved and directly e-mail their local stations to urge them to adopt this "show me the money" policy at their station. Check it out and join in at:
http://www.informedvoter.org
2) INITIATIVE FACT BOXES: Some readers may remember that last Spring The Democracy Center urged California newspapers to add a new feature to their coverage of initiatives - the "Fact Box". These would be simple, ongoing graphics which summarize the key points about each initiative - what it does, who is for it, who is against it and the top two contributors to each side. The idea is to give all voters an easier way to get the basic facts. A number of reporters and editors told us they liked the idea of the "fact boxes" and one suggested, "Look, if you really want us to use these boxes, do them for us." And so, we have. The Center has prepared, in collaboration with the California Voter Foundation, a full set of fact boxes for the seven initiatives on the November ballot. This week the San Jose Mercury became the first paper to agree to use these fact boxes in their initiative coverage. The whole set is now posted on our Web site. Check them out for yourself, download them for organization newsletters or your friends, and also use our "write right now" button to send letters to the editor of your local newspaper asking them to use the fact boxes. The Center's Web site can be found at:
http://www.democracyctr.org
Finally, there is a treasure trove of valuable voter information, to include updates of contribution reports from many campaigns, available on-line at the site of The California Voter Foundation. Check them out at:
http://www.calvoter.org
Good luck to everyone as election season heats up.
[Correct Quiz Answers: 1 = a, 2 = b, 3 = b and c, 4 = c,
5 = c]
________________________________________________________________________
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