All day I’ve been hearing reports that the effort to put two initiatives on the November ballot allowing voters to call a Constitutional Convention is either dying or dead. According to an email John Grubb of Repair California sent out to his list just a few minutes ago, the effort is indeed in trouble, needing an infusion of cash to stay alive:

Success is tantalizingly close. This week about 100 people were working full-time collecting signatures from our fellow Californians to put the question of the Convention on the ballot. With funding we can ramp up to 400 people. We are running a lean campaign with many volunteers and others working almost for free because they believe in the mission of the campaign and refuse to let California fail. Given our trends, this week alone, approximately 100,000 voters will put their name on a petition to enable the Convention to be called. Fairly incredible.

That said, we still have to pay rent on our offices across the state, meet payroll and print petitions for registered voters to sign. Our overall budget is $3.6 million to qualify the Convention for the ballot, a small amount considering the normal $60 million cost of a full ballot measure campaign. Donation by donation we are getting there, but not fast enough.

We are about to start spending more than we are taking in and our costs are going to grow. Without more funding, the campaign will need to end and with it, the possibility of a Convention.

Grubb goes on to tell the story of Robert Morris, a financier in colonial America who stepped in to fund and equip the Continental Army in the winter of 1776 at a moment of desperation. Grubb would like a similar wealthy white knight to appear to help fund the Con-Con campaign, but that appears unlikely.

Both Joe Mathews and John Myers are reporting that Repair California has indeed “paused” its campaign efforts as they await more funds. So far they have taken in $500,000 but have budgeted $3.6 million for the signature-gathering effort.

This news comes in the wake of reports that the signature gathering cartel has blacklisted the Con-Con petitions, making it more difficult to get the 1.2 million signatures each initiative needed to qualify for the ballot. The cartel wanted to drive up the price per signature, and Repair California didn’t want to pay it.

I’ve been pretty critical of the Con-Con proposal as it finally emerged, but have always argued that the biggest obstacle was the broken political system itself. If the Con-Con does indeed fail to make the ballot, it would be further proof that California’s political system is too badly broken to repair itself. What that portends for the future is, of course, both unclear and very deeply troubling.

UPDATE: Grubb tells KQED that the campaign can survive another 30 days, so “dead” seems to be vastly overstating matters:

The following are quote is from Grubb to my KQED colleague, Cy Musiker: “We put a pause on our signature gathering. We still have plenty of time to do it. But we’re trying to wait for our funding to catch up.” Grubb said that so far, they’ve only gathered about 100,000 signatures… a small fraction of what’s needed to qualify the two initiatives (one would allow voters to call a convention, the second would actually call the convention). He also said that they can continue with “reduced” staff for another 30 days before officially calling it quits.