SACRAMENTO — Led by national drug companies that have poured $58.5 million into an initiative fight with national implications, promoters and candidates have raised more than $116 million they can use in campaigns this year and beyond.
In advance of the Nov. 8 special election he called, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with such allies as the California Chamber of Commerce, has raised $19.6 million for initiatives he supports. He also collected $2.1 million for a possible 2006 reelection bid, raised in the first half of this year.
Unions representing public school teachers, prison guards and other civil servants are matching Schwarzenegger's money, raising at least $20 million in the first half of the year as they prepare to battle him over an array of ballot measures, according to reports filed with the state in recent days.
Campaign financing -- An article in Tuesday's California section about campaign fundraising said Proposition 5, an initiative that legalized casinos on Indian reservations, was on the ballot in 1988. It was on the ballot in 1998.
Schwarzenegger had predicted he would raise as much as $50 million for the campaign. Although he still may reach that goal, he fell short in the first half of 2005, the period covered by the filings. Indeed, his main initiative fund had a $1.8-million deficit on June 30; another fund, created by his backers, had a $1.4-million debt.
Schwarzenegger erased the debt in July, his campaign aides said, and has amassed an additional $1 million. But Robin Swanson, spokeswoman for the union-backed opposition, said the initial deficit "speaks volumes; businesses
The governor called the special election to push measures to grant governors more power over the state budget, make tenure harder to get for public school teachers and alter the way legislative boundaries are drawn.
The ballot is expected to include as many eight propositions, though the redistricting measure faces a court challenge.
Voters will decide whether to require parents of minor daughters to be notified before the girls could obtain abortions, to reregulate aspects of the electricity market, to cut prescription drug prices and to restrict public employee unions' ability to fund political activity -- an idea that is generating fierce labor opposition.
The California Teachers Assn., among the Republican governor's main rivals, has tapped its 335,000 members for an extra $60 a year each for political campaigns -- and already has spent $15 million. Much of that money has gone to television ads airing across the state attacking Schwarzenegger.
