California Elections 1996

Proposition 209, the initiative on affirmative action, had a huge gender gap: Most men voted for it and a majority of women opposed it. White voters were the only racial or ethnic group supporting 209. On Proposition 215, the marijuana medical use initiative, all age groups except the elderly were for it. * PROP.

It came way at the bottom of a long election ballot, but Proposition 218--to make it tougher for local governments in California to raise taxes--easily won voter approval Tuesday. That was no surprise because Proposition 218 was another in a long list of initiative measures sponsored by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. and approved by California voters since the taxpayer revolt of 1978.

Some former rebels of the Republican "revolution" wandered around aimlessly with stiff drinks in their hands, stone sober. Not even booze could get them high on this election night. Others--professional politician rebels--hid out in seclusion, as if pulling the covers over their heads and hoping it would all go away. They barricaded themselves in hotel rooms behind rent-a-guards, huddling with trusty cohorts and nervously ingesting the latest returns, waiting frantically for any good news.

The decisive defeat of two HMO regulatory measures in Tuesday's elections is unlikely to quell a torrent of state and federal legislative reform efforts that are being fed by growing public anxiety about managed care, health policy experts said Wednesday. But opponents were savoring their victories over the labor-union-backed measures that would have imposed stringent controls on health maintenance organizations and hospitals in California.

A few months ago, Assemblywoman Paula Boland was on the front page every day fighting for her Valley secession bill. A headline about her opponent dubbed him "Candidate What's His Name." Now Democrat Adam Schiff has a name and a title--state senator from the 21st District--and is the first Democrat in many years to represent the Glendale-Burbank area. The former federal prosecutor beat Boland handily, racking up 52% to her 43.8% in a race heavily funded by both political parties.

In their lopsided approval of Proposition 218, California voters gave the go-ahead to the most significant tax-cutting initiative in a decade, prompting local officials statewide Wednesday to warn that services from libraries to police could be cut. In Los Angeles, City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg called for the city to file a lawsuit to have the initiative, which restricts the ability of local governments to increase or impose general taxes, declared unconstitutional.

Backers of campaign finance reform say that California voters sent "a clarion call heard around the nation" when they overwhelmingly approved Proposition 208, which imposes limits on the size of state and local campaign contributions.