Tag Archives: Term limits

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Report: Term Limits Initiative Fails To Gather Enough Signatures, Will Miss February Ballot

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The Flash Report had a Drudge-like breaking news item up last night that the term limits initiative scheduled for the February ballot was going to miss the number of required signatures needed to qualify.  We’ve been calling around, and apparently this is pretty accurate.  It’s totally unconfirmed, and the Secretary of State can go to a hand count to see if they reached the requisite number.  But right now, it’s not looking good; a LOT of the signatures have been invalidated.

I’m honestly astonished.  I thought you could accidentally gather enough signatures to get something on the ballot in California.  I’m not sure where the ball was dropped here.

They can try again to make this term limits shift for the June ballot.  But if they can’t qualify for February, many current incumbents whose length of service would stretch due to the provisions of the initiative would end up termed out.  This includes Speaker Nuñez and President Pro Tem Perata.  I’d like to get a full list of the implications of this, but that won’t happen right now.  (ortcutt?)

This will make it easier for challengers to decide to run, so we’ll see the June primary process take shape quickly if this works out this way.  Quite a turn of events.

(The other question is, what happens to all the money horded for this initiative?  I know a certain dirty trick that needs fighting…)


[UPDATE]- by Julia Frank in the comments links to an excellent Cap Weekly article on this.  There is no definitive word on if there will be enough signatures.  The authenticity checks are not complete, however there is a significant risk that the initiative may have enough votes to qualify but that it would be verified too late to make it on the ballot.  Really, read the piece and you will see there are a lot of moving pieces.

Anyone who is used to watching returns on this state should know that never say anything until LA’s numbers are in…

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Eminent Domain Initiative On Its Deathbed?

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Before election time rolls around? Aww, that’s unfortunate, because Prop 90 was so much fun for folks of all ages!

Anyway, the SacBee found a few teensy-weensy errors (h/t to the CA Majority Report ) in the draft of the initiative.  Well, ok, really big errors. Namely the initiative, sponsored in part by the Farm Bureau, would make it darn tough to start new water storage projects.

In short, the CPOFPA would make it illegal to use eminent domain to acquire land and water to develop public water projects. That’s right: the Farm Bureau — a major proponent of water storage and supply — is bankrolling an initiative that would effectively make it impossible to develop any new water projects in the state (visit the website of the coalition promoting Assemblyman De La Torre’s honest eminent domain reforms for a fact sheet on the issue). It’s hard to imagine they would do this intentionally, so one has to assume it is the mother of all drafting errors.

GOP Senator Dave Cogdill told the Bee: “As I read it, there’s certainly reason for concern for what it means for the future of water projects in California, especially as it pertains to new water storage.” (CA Majority Report )

I tell you what, the “eminent domain” people, who keep trying to slip other provisions into their initiatives, are pretty much the bad news bears of initiative reform. Every possible mistake happens.  But, we all make mistakes, right term limit reformers?

Blog Roundup, Health Care

August 23, 2007 Blog Roundup

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August 21, 2007 Blog Roundup

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Blog Roundup, Budget

August 19, 2007 Blog Roundup

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And what if it doesn’t pass? Looking at new leadership

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So, I know the Senate President Pro Tem, Don Perata, and the Speaker of the Assembly, Fabian Nunez, are operating on a principle of confidence in their upcoming victory on term limits. But, given the budget debacle, that doesn’t seem a lock at this point.

In the most recent issue of Capitol Weekly, the best gosh-darned weekly on California politics, Anthony York takes a look at fundraising totals for clues as to who might make a run at the leadership positions in each chamber:

A  look at the fundraising totals provides a pretty good clue as to who is in the top tier of contenders to replace Núñez and Perata. Leading the way is Freshman Kevin De Leon, D-Los Angeles, a close ally of Núñez and organized labor. The caucus’ second-leading fundraiser, Culver City Democrat Karen Bass, also has close labor ties. And, like De Leon, Bass is frequently mentioned as a possible successor to Núñez.
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That’s true in the Senate, as well, where Sen. Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, showed $484,323 on hand. Steinberg’s most frequently mentioned challenger for the job, Los Angeles Sen. Alex Padilla, has $332,523. But both were eclipsed by San Francisco Sen. Leland Yee, who has $529,826 and Chino Sen. Gloria Negrete- Mcleod, who has $525,176. (CapWeekly 8/2/07)

But, that can’t be the only measure, or else, well, we are confined to being governed by and for AT&T and Chevron.  So, who provides the right combination of progressivism and fundraising ability? Follow me over the flip

Well, let’s start in the Senate, Darrell Steinberg would certainly be a good start. Obviously he’s not bad at raising the dough, but he’s also been a pretty solid progressive vote, scoring a 95 on Capitol Weekly’s scorecard. Sen Padilla has at least 7 years left in office, so would be able to “reign” for quite a while.  Of course, one more name should be thrown into the mix, that of the winner of SD-03. The winner in the bloody primary will likely emerge as the one of the most prolific fundraisers in state legislative history and will be able to gain some attention for that alone.  And, oh, by the way, 3 of the four announced candidates in the race are progressive.  Other candidates may be in the works, and some of them are unfamiliar to me. So, Mr. Kronenbourg, you want to give me a call and we can talk about whether you are a progressive or not?

Now, as for the Assembly, the obvious candidates would be the Majority Whip, Fiona Ma, and the big fundraiser Kevin De Leon. Karen Bass, the majority leader, and only non-freshman in the group that gets mentioned, made a damaging vote on the tribal compacts which might create riffs with the labor community. De Leon has a perfect progressive CW-score, and Ma is only slightly behind. As to who would actually make a progressive Speaker and work for the people, well, there are few of the people-powered variety in our legislature. And for that, we have many reasons to blame, ourselves included. You can blame our expensive media, and our campaign finance rules too. How sweet would some clean campaigning be right now?

Anyway, what do you think? Who would make a great legislative leader?

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Labor, Racetracks Join Effort To Stop Tribal Gaming Compacts

As the race in California’s 37th District showed (to a certain extent), wealthy Indian tribes are no match in the electoral arena for the boots on the ground and organization provided by labor.  With this in mind, the February Presidential primary just got a whole lot more interesting:

A coalition of labor and horse racing interests announced Friday that it will ask voters to pull the plug on a huge tribal gambling expansion negotiated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The owner of two racetracks and the hotel workers’ union will team up on a campaign that could put four new initiatives on the February ballot and cost tens of millions of dollars. Some tribes with casinos that are not part of the expansion said they might join the effort.

The tracks and union seek to undo legislation Schwarzenegger signed into law July 10 to allow four tribes in Riverside and San Diego counties to more than double or triple the number of slot machines in their casinos.

A few points:

• Unite Here has a lot of organizational muscle and will have enough money to get out the message of how these rich tribes will be expanding their gaming operations at the expense of workers.  The Bay Meadows racetrack concern is on board because they believe this expansion will hurt their gambling business.

• This will be an EXPENSIVE referendum if it gets on the ballot.  Labor and the richer tribes can raise gobs of cash.  This will suck up all of the oxygen on initiatives as much as the alternative energy proposition did last year.  This will impact…

• The term limits initiative, which will suddenly have less of an impression on voters.  Considering that it’s written as a limiting rather than a relaxation, that may bode well for it.  But the ballot could be extremely crowded.

People are gathering signatures for 17 other measures, and backers of 11 others are waiting for the approval to begin signature-gathering to try to get their measures on a ballot next year. Those potential initiatives include measures to ban gay marriage, overhaul the state’s tax structure, ban cruelty to farm animals and curb government employee pensions.

My calculus is that the more that’s on the ballot, the less people want to support them.  And the long ballots of the past couple years have been exercises in futility.  The direct democracy bug everyone caught with the recall in 2003 has turned into a flu.

Stay tuned…

Blog Roundup, Budget, Environment, Prisons

July 23, 2007 Blog Roundup

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Is The Term Limit Initiative Destroying This Legislative Session?

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I don’t think it’s any secret that there’s been a growing disquiet from progressives with how the California Legislature is doing business.  We won’t know the final tallies until the end of the session in September, of course, but just in the past couple months, Democratic leaders have given the Governor the ability to build 53,000 new beds for prisons without addressing rehabilitation programs that are the only way to cut costs and reduce recidivism.  They approved a shockingly anti-worker set of tribal gaming compacts, with only token protections in the side deals, and then tried to make the dishonest claim that they didn’t negotitate the deals in the first place so they can’t be blamed for them (um, then don’t approve them and force the Governor to start over, you have the power to do that, you know).  They combined their healthcare bills to negotiate with the governor without them even including guaranteed issue, meaning that insurance companies can continue to deny coverage to patients for pre-existing conditions (a separate state-run system would be set up to provide for these ill patients, which would make insurers even more loath to spend money on care, given the crutch afforded them by the parallel system for sick people).  And they allowed hostile amendments on patient-dumping to pass the Assembly Health Committee.  We don’t yet have a state budget, as it passed its deadline, and progressives are crossing their fingers that this trend won’t continue and some of the worst cuts for the needy preferred by the Governor won’t be allowed to remain.

So what is going on here?  Why is a Legislature with wide majorities in both houses, sufficient to pass pretty much everything but the budget and tax measures, seemingly caving in on all sides?  One article in the SF Chronicle offers a compelling explanation:

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez’s decision this week to end an impasse with Indian gaming tribes and ratify new gambling compacts is designed to help pass a proposed ballot initiative that would allow him and other lawmakers to keep their jobs longer, his critics and political observers said Thursday.

For Núñez, the compacts landed him between the state’s two major special interest forces — wealthy Indian tribes that want to greatly increase the number of slot machines on tribal lands and labor unions that pressed for provisions that would make it easier for workers to organize at casinos.

The standoff between the two groups had placed Núñez in a politically precarious position of having to choose between his political base in labor or mollify tribes that have not been shy about using their deep pockets to buoy or sink political campaigns […]

“I think what (Núñez) wants to do is to make sure there is no opposition to term limits, not necessarily building support for it,” said Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies, a nonprofit research group in Los Angeles. “He may have just removed a major monied interest against the measure.”

If this is the motivating interest, then this term limits measure is killing the state, and the ability to make any progress for Californians.  And there’s even more evidence for this.

Schwarzenegger, however, is not alone in squeezing Núñez, et al. An even more blatant threat came from the Professional Peace Officers Association, an umbrella group for rank-and-file police who bitterly oppose a bill that would allow public access to police disciplinary proceedings.

The measure, Senate Bill 1019 by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, cleared the Senate but was stalled in the Assembly after John R. Stites, president of the police association, sent messages to legislators that were the bill to be passed, the union would oppose the term limit modification and added ominously, “Ensure that it be understood that this will only be the beginning.” Thereafter, the Assembly Public Safety Committee held the bill without a vote — an action that had to have leadership blessing.

Legislative leaders doubtless cringe at the vision of having their term limit measure denounced in television commercials by uniform-wearing cops. The California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the union that represents prison guards, contributed to Núñez’s term limit drive, but he angered union leaders by helping Schwarzenegger enact a prison construction-reform program.

You can read more about how SB 1019 was bottled up in an Assembly Committee.

Obviously, Democratic leaders don’t want the Governor against them when the term limits measure comes up for a vote in February, and so the budget and the health-care debate may suffer in the process.  But they also appear to be determined to silence any potential interest group that may criticize the measure and fund its opposition.  Therefore you see these caves on sunshine for police disciplinary actions and the tribal compacts, and perhaps the homeless dumping bill as well.

This fits with a consistent pattern that is doing nothing but angering Democratic activists.  The vast majority of the public isn’t paying attention to such matters, due in no small part to the fact that media outlets are abandoning their Sacramento bureaus.  But progress in California has completely stalled in this legislative session, perhaps out of a small-minded desire to stay in power for an extra six years.  It calls into question why such “leaders” would want to remain in power in the first place.  But we can all surmise the answer to that one.

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A Novel Way To Try To Buy Influence

This is deadline week in the California State Assembly.  Hundreds of bills will be voted upon so that they can be moved on to the Senate.  Obviously, major special interests want to have something to say about which bills pass and which leave.  The best way for them to impact that is through campaign contributions.  And this year, they’ve got a new campaign to which to contribute.

The law bars them from donating more than $7,200 directly to Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles). But nothing has prevented teachers, doctors, gambling enterprises, insurers and others from giving much, much more to a cause close to Nuñez’s heart.

Those interest groups wrote checks for as much as $250,000 to help bankroll a ballot measure that would tweak California’s term limits to give Nuñez another six years in the Legislature. Seventeen unions, corporations, utilities and professional associations have donated a combined $1.68 million for a signature-gathering effort to put the measure before voters next February.

The contributions, all made within the last two months, come as lawmakers led by Nuñez are deciding on hundreds of bills of concern to the donors. The groups had already spent a combined $3.5 million in the first three months of this year trying to influence the Legislature, governor’s office and state agencies, state records show.

This is not a problem in and of itself, unless the bills that come out of the Assembly match up favorably with the campaign contributors.  We’ll be watching.  But the appearance is certainly not pristine.

over…

Jay Stewart, executive director of the nonpartisan, nonprofit Better Government Assn. in Chicago, said he doubted that union members and corporate shareholders were clamoring for a term-limits overhaul. But the large donations are certain to be noticed by Nuñez, he said.

“Common sense tells you that if you support an issue near and dear to any legislator … to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, you’re probably going to get your phone call returned,” Stewart said.

There’s a list of donors here.  A lot of them are trade unions.  We’ve always known that special interest dollars on all sides corrode the trust that people have in their government.  The best way we can change this is to lobby on behalf of AB 583, the pilot program for public financing of elections which will be voted on tomorrow.  However, this won’t impact special interests giving to initiative committees that, in this case, extend the term of service for legislators.  So initiative reform is something that we need as well.