You really have to admire Hiram Johnson for his effort. After all, he totally remade California. Some reforms were more successful than others. He implemented direct election of US Senators, taking that away from the legislature, and that was pretty successful. He was also one of the leading voices for women’s suffrage. Some of his reforms wer not as successful. Besides the proposition system, which he thought would lessen the impact of the big money of the railroads (hah!), he also championed cross-registration that actually set back progressives outside of the Republican party back. By the time it was abolished, the parties were realigned, and Republicans had been using cross-registration to hide their true policy support.
But Johnson was truly a great progressive who did what he thought was best to decrease the impact of the moneyed interests. It just didn’t really turn out that way. By the time he had been elected to the US Senate, leaving behind the Governor’s office in 1917, the signs were there that money was just finding new ways to play.
Select and elect article…all anti-Dem: