Reforming the Initiative Process
Facts vs. Big Money

American voters remain vulnerable to ballot-box budgeting schemes
and expensive advertising campaigns pushed by moneyed interests.

It's time to reform the system.

Voters need real information, not propaganda. We also need watchdog organizations that research the issues and point out the lies. And we need initiatives that are clearly written, not in confusing legalese. In California, this year's election pamphlets were excruciatingly difficult to understand.

A true democracy demands elections that are based on the facts. Not the money. Our government has ill served American voters by deleting the Fairness Doctrine and making it relatively easy for Big Money to control elections. This had the same effect as the elimination of the usury laws that used to regulate businesses, which resulted in the current financial fiasco.

One example is California’s Proposition Seven, which would have benefited both the people and the planet. Prop 7 was backed by a true philanthropic environmentalist who did not stand to make a dime on the passage of the initiative.

Conversely, the opposition was backed by Big Energy. Pacific Gas & Electric Corp, Edison International and Sempra Energy provided at least $28 million for a massive media campaign to defeat the measure. The campaign was basically a pack of lies and accusations, quite similar to the McCain/Palin campaign and the tactics that Karl Rove employed to put GW Bush in office and reelect him in 2004.

The opponents claimed the measure would harm small solar energy companies and cost jobs. In reality, Prop 7 would have benefited small alternative energy companies and would have created over 370,000 new high salaried jobs in the state.

So, why did these energy companies oppose the measure? The power companies felt it would have cut into their profits. Prop 7 would have also raised the penalties for non-compliance with the Public Utilities Commission's current regulations. And it would have shifted some regulatory authority over the industry from the P.U.C. to the Energy Commission, which was apparently also a great concern with the power companies.

Big Money can afford to pour $$millions into political campaigns, especially when it costs relatively little compared with the money companies stand to lose from the initiative in question. Their opponents can rarely raise this kind of money.

The effectiveness of a democracy depends on informed voters. They need factual information that is clearly written and easy to understand. And we need a government that is capable of providing this.

David Satre
November 2008
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