Ballot Initiative

A fight has split backers of a November ballot initiative to suspend California's 2006 global warming law. "Big money interests have come in and shut out the people," said Ted Costa, chief executive of the Sacramento-based anti-tax organization People's Advocate, one of the initiative's original sponsors. Costa, whose populist group has promoted conservative ballot propositions for more than two decades, had drafted the initiative along with Assemblyman Dan Logue (R-Marysville)

Every morning when UC San Diego physicist Herbert Levine laces up his running shoes and chugs alongside Mission Bay, his earphones crackle with radio ads opposing a proposed $1-per-pack cigarette tax to raise money for cancer research. The ads are funded by the tobacco industry. They call Proposition 29, the tobacco tax that state voters will consider on the June 5 ballot, a bureaucratic boondoggle, an initiative that would raise mountains of cash for research but not a penny for treatment.

The Board of Supervisors scuttled a proposed ballot initiative over the Boy Scouts, citing concerns that it could further divide the community. The proposed measure stated among other things that Scouting is "wholesome and worthwhile," and it criticized supervisors for a March 30 resolution condemning the Scouts' policy of excluding homosexuals.

Several high-profile business names, such as San Francisco hedge-fund manager Thomas Steyer and agribusiness magnate Stewart Resnick, have contributed to a proposed ballot measure seeking tighter regulation of health insurance rates, according to campaign finance records. These contributions were among $1.5 million in donations reported Monday to the California Secretary of State by Consumer Watchdog, the Santa Monica group leading the ballot drive. A coalition of insurers, hospitals, doctors and business groups opposing the measure has reported $367,200 in donations.

Re "Supervisors Block Initiative From Ballot," June 21. As one of the declining number of veterans of World War II, which was fought to save democracy and the ability of American citizens to freely vote, the Ventura County Supervisors' recent actions regarding the tobacco settlement money make me wonder if the democracy concept is still alive. Sufficient American citizens signed an initiative concerning the disposition and control of the tobacco tax money. That alone should mandate that the initiative be included in the next election, not tangled in a legal quagmire.

California's experiment in direct democracy, particularly its love-hate relationship with the ballot initiative, was launched in 1911 to break the Southern Pacific Railroad's iron rule over state government. Nearly 90 years later, citizens and reformers still see the initiative as their check on special interests and a way to bypass the Legislature when it refuses to respond to the public need.

Determined to keep alive the Rose Bowl's chances to land an NFL team, a Pasadena city councilman is putting the finishing touches on a ballot initiative that would allow voters to decide whether the city should move forward with a proposal. Councilman Chris Holden said he planned to submit the paperwork this week that would allow him to begin collecting the 10,700 signatures necessary to put an NFL deal on the ballot.

A bill to prevent Alaska governors from making long-term appointments to the U.S. Senate is now law -- without Gov. Frank H. Murkowski's signature. Legislators passed the bill after it became clear that a citizens initiative to do about the same thing had enough signatures to go on the November ballot. Lt. Gov. Loren Leman said the new law would knock that question off the ballot. The governor has 20 days to sign or veto a bill.

Prosperity has returned at last to Southern California's economy. Now if only wisdom were to follow, we could be assured the region will fulfill its great potential in the years ahead. But the ballot initiatives for Tuesday's statewide primary election are characterized by argument and division, not wisdom. And that promises to reinforce a worrisome trend of bitter differences that constantly threatens progress in Southern California's economy.

Backers of a proposed statewide ballot initiative to have AIDS declared a communicable disease subject to quarantine say they have collected almost 40% of the signatures needed to qualify the initiative for the November election. The Prevent AIDS Now Initiative Committee has gathered 120,00 to 150,000 of the 393,385 signatures required by May 24, according to Brian Lantz, a candidate in the Democratic U.S. Senate primary.

A wise man learns from his foe. Democrats have carefully studied Republicans, and now Gov. Jerry Brown may be benefiting. Or maybe not. "Talk to me in a month," says Democratic guru Gale Kaufman, who recommended that Brown emulate the longtime GOP strategy of mailing ballot-measure petitions directly to voters for their signatures. More than 1 million California voters — mainly reliable Democrats — received a Brown blurb at home last week, preceded by a robocall from the governor announcing it was in the mail.

California's initiative process can be both a wonderfully democratic and perilously dumb way to make law. On no issue could that be more true than the proposed initiative to shut down nuclear power in the state. The initiative would shut down the Diablo Canyon and San Onofre nuclear plants until the federal government approves a permanent disposal site for nuclear waste. The issue is scientifically, environmentally and economically complex, and tangled with powerful emotions. Between the facts and those feelings, guess which will have more influence on the choice people make?

  Months ago, Gov. Jerry Brown won business and labor backing for an initiative that combined higher taxes on California's top income earners with a half-cent sales tax - a strategy he said would share the pain of addressing the state's budget woes. But on Wednesday, bowing to pressure from liberal activists, the governor modified his proposal, agreeing to cut the sales tax hike in half and place a greater share of the burden on the wealthy. Brown cast the revision as a strategic move to reduce the number of tax proposals voters may face on the November ballot - and increase the chances that the electorate will embrace at least one measure to provide a sorely needed revenue increase.

In the parking lot of a closed Pasadena restaurant, a handful of tea party volunteers huddled under a tent to escape a sudden downpour of rain. They were there to gather signatures to repeal AB 131, or the California Dream Act, which gives illegal immigrants access to state financial aid at public universities and community colleges. The rain smudged their signs, they were shouted at by a driver who called them racist, and the turnout was lower than they'd hoped. But they were undaunted.

A state ballot initiative proposed for next fall would force California's two nuclear power plants to immediately shut down, causing rolling blackouts, spikes in electricity rates and billions of dollars in economic losses each year, a nonpartisan analyst has found. The report by the Legislative Analyst's Office says the shutdown of San Onofre in northern San Diego County and Diablo Canyon in San Luis Obispo County would disrupt one of the state's most reliable power sources and have profound effects on government and the economy.

High school students in Hailey, Idaho, have gotten more of a civics lesson than they bargained for since they decided to push for a ban on plastic shopping bags in their scenic ski community. Fresh from the heady victory of banning plastic foam plates in the school cafeteria, the Wood River High School environment club turned its attention last spring to plastic grocery bags. Such bags are increasingly blamed for filling up landfills, polluting oceans and — in Hailey, anyway — becoming an eyesore along one of the prettiest highways in America.

The Ventura City Council is expected Monday to adopt a mandatory $200 deposit for ballot initiative petitions. The fee will be refunded after city officials verify that the signatures on the petitions are valid, City Clerk Barbara Kam said. Kam said the rule is being established "to stymie frivolous initiatives." But Kam acknowledged that few ballot initiatives have been introduced in the city's history.

Voters may soon decide the fate of the controversial Glendora Marketplace development, which would bring a Home Depot, Sam's Club and other stores to an area known as the old strawberry patch. City Council members voted 4 to 0 to have the city attorney draft a ballot initiative to allow developers to build a 400,000-square-foot retail center on Lone Hill Avenue. The council will decide Oct. 26 on the final wording of the measure and the election date.

National Democrats including President Obama are lending support to an effort by Democrats and labor allies in Ohio to repeal legislation that curbed collective bargaining rights for state employees. Earlier this year, newly-elected Republican Gov. John Kasich signed Senate Bill 5, arguing that limiting state employee unions' ability to collectively bargain was part of the answer to state budget woes. A similar effort in Wisconsin led to recall attempts against a slate of Republican state senators, only several of which succeeded.

Gov. Jerry Brown raised the ire of bicyclists, Chinese-food chefs, Republicans and some pet lovers Friday as he announced action on dozens of proposed laws. Brown outlawed the sale of shark fins, despite protests from some Chinese American leaders who saw the move as an assault on Asian culture; vetoed a controversial bid to restrict how motorists pass bicyclists; and decided not to require microchip tracking of some dogs and cats. Among the 57 bills he approved were several intended to increase the safety of natural gas pipelines and one that requires all ballot initiatives to be decided in November general elections, which typically draw greater numbers of liberal voters than June primaries.