Such success has provided Holman the money to bankroll Proposition 73. The measure is the fruition of years of effort by anti-abortion activists and others dismayed after the state Supreme Court blocked a parental consent law passed by the Legislature in 1987.
But Holman's role goes beyond check writer. He also has recruited other large donors -- including Domino's Pizza founder Tom Monaghan, an acquaintance and fellow Catholic from Michigan -- and has used his Catholic papers to rally support.
During the signature-gathering phase, the publications carried copies of the petitions that could be snipped out and circulated, Rhomberg said, as well as ads and articles that declared the initiative "the first pro-life measure to come before the public in California history."
At Planned Parenthood in San Diego, President Mark Salo said Holman's low-profile but critical support for Proposition 73 does not surprise him. For years, as he entered the driveway at the agency, Salo would pass a lone abortion protester. The man never yelled or bothered anyone, but he did hold a sign bearing an enlarged color picture of a fetus.
"It was Jim Holman," Salo said, "just standing out there with his sign."
