It’s official. All the propositions lost. Arnold has no mojo left, he lost big time. He forced this election, it cost the state millions of dollars, and the voters soundly rejected all the measures and him with it.
And hopefully this is the end of California ballots filled with propositions too.
Not likely. Follow the link from yesterday to the California Secretary of State. Look for the propositions being circulated. Mainly right-wing, wedge-issue stuff. Less than 374,000 registered voters are all that’s necessary for non-constitutional measures to qualify; less than 600,000 for constitutional measures. As long as the qualifying limits are this low, political entrepreneurs and interest groups will keep using the process. Raise the limits to 25% or 30% of ALL registered voters, not just voters in the last gubenatorial election and you’ll see some significant change in the initiative process. For now, the barriers of entry are just too low.
Weel, given the cost of running a proposition campaign, and given the mood of the voters who are clearly fed up with the whole process, there may be less of them.
Yes,reform is badly needed.
Take a look at the ones that are currently pending. Really frightening; most of them are right-wing wedge issue ones, close to qualifying, maybe. Be afraid. Be very afraid.