You may or may not remember Howard Rich, but I have had many opportunities to grow to despise the man. He seemingly funds every bad government deform proposition on our ballot.  He funded the term limits measure back in the 90s, and still heads US Term Limits. Oh, and despite the fact that he doesn’t even live in California, he provided almost all of the funds to get Prop 90 on the ballot. That measure, you may recall, would have required that the state pay for any little regulation of property in the state.

Well, Howie Rich has a new fun activity: harassing Democratic donors by accusing them of the murky charge of “voter fraud.” Matt Stoller acquired a copy of the letter, which you will find over the flip.

The part that is most interesting to me is that this comes from the guy who won’t reveal the donors to US Term Limits, despite the fact that the body gave $1.5 million to fight Prop 93, citing privacy or other such nonsense.  I suppose it is ok for him to threaten donors, but not the other way around.

Of course, Rich can’t actually do anything legally to these donors, but he is probably doing a fair job of scaring a few donors away.

When Tom McClintock was trying to get his eminent domain initiative qualified for the ballot, he had quite a bit of problems.  You see, nobody really cared enough about the issue to give any money to support a signature drive.  And certainly nobody cared about this enough to volunteer time to get signatures.  From Tom’s mouth:

“They were able to raise the money to qualify their initiative. I was not,” says McClintock, who has endorsed Proposition 90. “I learned during the  car-tax initiative that if you don’t have the money lined up before the  signature gathering, you shouldn’t start.” (CapWeekly 7/13/06)

So you see, nobody was really willing to pile in the money for an eminent domain initiative.  And McClintock’s eminent domain init didn’t even carry all the baggage that Prop 90 carries.  You see, Howie Rich goes for the gusto.  When he plops down his millions, he makes sure that we really put it to the government.  A little water-boarding for the Capitol and all.

But that’s not all the shady back-room dealings on Prop 90.  You see, not all that money that Howard Rich is donating to the cause of Prop 90 is his own money.  He funnels money through a vast array of shady tax havens, 527s and other organizations.

The man at the center of this national effort is Howie Rich, a wealthy libertarian who believes in limited government and has long used tax-exempt groups to promote his favored candidates and political beliefs — property rights, term limits, tax cuts and school vouchers, among others.

The practice of using tax-exempt groups to fund campaigns has been criticized by some political-finance experts as opaque and deceptive. Unlike other political organizations, advocacy groups don’t have to disclose their donors.

In interviews and e-mails to The Chronicle, Rich said the groups help protect people who think like him, people who want to cut government powers but fear retribution if their names are published in public campaign-finance disclosure reports.(SF Chronicle 10/05/06)

Retribution? Um, yeah, Howie Rich is really terrified of retribution.  What they are terrified about is people discovering just who is paying to manipulate our governance.  The fact is that this proposition is funded almost exclusively by people who don’t live in the state.  The people of California do not want this taxpayer trap, but these “libretarians” insist on foisting this wretched proposition upon us.

No way, not here.  We’ve seen what’s happened elsewhere.  This is a bad, bad law.

( – promoted by SFBrianCL)

Have you ever heard of Howard Rich?  Well, consider yourself on notice.  Howard Rich is waging a war on the government, via the “Save Our Homes” initiative.  Shane Goldmacher has the story:

Through a web of organizations, Rich is backing eminent-domain initiatives in Arizona, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Oklahoma and Washington with $4 million–though no state has received as much financial support as California. In each of these efforts, Rich himself is never disclosed as a major donor. Instead, he steers his contributions through nonprofit intermediaries, such as the Fund for Democracy, which he is using to finance California’s Proposition 90 campaign.

“I think California often leads the nation,” says Rich. “It is the largest, most populous state and it is very important to us that property rights be restored there.”

But the influx of out-of-state money pushing measures to amend state constitutions across the country has angered many local activists.

“They are backed by an organization that is chaired by a New York real estate developer and that makes you wonder who is going to benefit,” says Aaron Toso, spokesman for the campaign against Washington’s eminent-domain measure. “Obviously if people don’t live here they wont have to pay the extra taxes and sit in the extra traffic.”

Here in California, opponents of the eminent-domain initiative are also accusing Rich of pushing his unwanted, out-of-state agenda on the state’s voters.

“The fact that this one guy from New York, an out-of-state multimillionaire, has decided, ‘I know what’s best for the nation and I am going to tell all the state’s how to do things right’ … that’s offensive,” says No on 90 spokeswoman Kathy Fairbanks.(Capitol Weekly 7/13/06)

These out-of-staters come into California because we are such a leader in the initiative process, for better or worse.  If California falls victim to Prop 90, you can bet similar initiatives will be all over the nation. And Prop 90 is merely using the Kelo decision for cover.  It is far more insidious.  The “damage” provision in Prop 90 would prevent zoning and any environmental regulation at the state or local level.  Of all the initiatives, it is most important that Prop 90 be defeated.  Its effects would be felt immediately and permanently in much the same way we still feel the devestation of Prop 13.