Against The Open Primary Proposal

I believe I've wrote before that I'm opposed to the initiative (or is it a referendum?) that will be on the June 2010 ballot that would establish a supposed "Open Primary" for California elections. My main reason for opposing it is it will give us less choice in elections.

My colleague, Richard Winger, publisher of the Ballot Access News is also opposed. Here's his argument against the so- called Maldanado Measure.

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Why do I refer to him as my colleague? Because we were discussing some issue via e-mail some years ago- both of us being on the same side of that issue- and we both had letters to the editor on that issue published side by side in the San Francisco Chronicle on the same day.

For the life of me, I can't remember just what issue we were dealing with at the time.

Addendum: By golly, I found the letters! The issue was Prop 62, the last open (blanket) primary initiative from 2004. Richard's is the second letter, mine the third.

Larger Spending Initiatives Politico's Fault?

The Oakland Tribune reminds us that the vast majority of spending measures placed on the ballot over the years were put on the ballot by the state legislature, not individuals or "special interests". While I get the feeling the gist of story might have been to shed more dirt on the legislature, I don't feel that case can really be made. I'm not saying the legislature shouldn't be blamed but the voters passed those measures so they share at least equal blame.

Besides, might it make sense if you're proposing spending a bunch of money to pass it by the people who will be spending the money, never mind it being a good way to spread the blame around if the measure gets passed?

The story also includes changes to the initiative system some in the legislature are recommending. I don't have a problem taking a look at all of them, even that one where the citizen generated initiative gets run through the legislature before it can make it on the ballot. Of course, that almost seems a case of having the fox being put in charge of guarding the hen house, doesn't it?

One reform I'd like to make, both to the initiative system and the legislature in general, would be to make it so any initiative- or law- proposed, be able to fit on to a single 8 1/2 x 14" legal size piece of paper and still have room for signatures ( in the case of ballot initiatives). Seems to me if the text of an initiative takes up more space than that, it probably shouldn't be made into law in the first place. I doubt any of the powers- that- be would be interested in pursuing a reform like that, would they?

Weintraub Looks At Prop 1B

The Sacramento Bee's, Dan Weintraub, takes a look at Prop 1B this morning. Looks like he agrees with Tom Campbell that a NO vote is in order.

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Oh, and speaking of Prop 1F (which would disallow pay raises for legislators when there's a budget deficit): I don't know if it would have applied in this case, but more than 120 state assembly aides were recently given raises according to the Sacramento Bee. This, apparently without regard to current and projected budget shortfalls.

As always, if asked for a login to the SacBee web site, you can use humboldtlib as a username and blogspot for a password.