Paul starts this video saying “I am about to fly to CA.” Obviously, he doesn’t live here. This is increasingly obvious the more he talks about his opposition to SB448. He clearly doesn’t understand the devastating impacts the initiative system has had on CA.
The initiative system in CA has been taken over by big corporations that have the money and power to confuse voters and convince them to make decisions that favor the corporate interests, instead of the interests of the state and the people. In essence, initiative often serve the exact opposite purpose it was created for by being a weapon for corporations instead of a tool for the people to block corporate power.
One of the things big corporations do is pay signature gatherers - who usually have no interest or knowledge about what they are getting people to sign - to gather signatures to put the corporate propositions on the ballot. SB448 would have signature gatherers wear signs so the people signing their sheet know whether they are paid. This supports transparency and promotes democracy.
Frankly, it doesn’t go far enough. there should be a law that prohibits signature gatherers from being paid at all. This would stop one of the methods corporations use to control the initiative system. Hopefully, we would then just have people who are passionate about an issue out gathering signatures. You know, the CITIZENS IN CHARGE instead of the corporations.
Paul Jacob lives just outside the DC beltway in Virginia; which is where Citizen in Charge and 2/3 of our staff are based. The other 1/3 of the organization is based in California. Note the addresses at the bottom of this website. As for Paul being an “outside agitator,” your comment has ironic timing: tomorrow (Aug. 4) is the anniversary of finding the slain civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964. They too were accused of being outside agitators. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/slain-civil-rights-workers-fo…
Yes, we travel to CA and other states to agitate for the idea that the voters ought to have more open access to the initiative for deciding the political issues that affect their lives.
The Economist article you site was poorly researched and merely echoes the standard myths repeated by those who don’t like the say Californians have in their government. Paul refutes the many false claims in a letter here: http://www.citizensincharge.org/blog/paul/the-economist-gets-it-all-wron…
It is California’s legislature that has been taken over by special interests, and they want to legislate so many restrictions against the initiative that regular citizens can’t use it to check their power. Bills like SB 448, that you mention, are part of that: they make it harder and more costly to collect signatures for ballot measures.
If corporations “confuse voters and convince them,” then why did PG&E, who outspent the NO side 161 to 1, lose their recent initiative? What about the many other instances where the people vote against the side that spends the most? The track record of actual votes shows that voters can beat big corporations at the ballot box.
No measure has qualified for CA’s ballot since the 1980’s without using paid signature gathering: it’s nearly impossible given the huge signature requirement and short collection period. Without paying professional circulators, no measure would make the ballot and CA voters would have fewer choices.
Outlawing paid circulators, as you advocate, was also found in a 9-0 US Sup Ct vote (Meyer v Grant) to violate the First Amendment. Paid signature gatherers are not a new corporate invention, but have been part of the process since CA got I&R 100 years ago in 1911, and they are an essential part of the system that still has the potential to put the citizens in charge better than any other.
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Paul starts this video saying “I am about to fly to CA.” Obviously, he doesn’t live here. This is increasingly obvious the more he talks about his opposition to SB448. He clearly doesn’t understand the devastating impacts the initiative system has had on CA.
For more on this - http://www.economist.com/node/18563638. This is a great article. Please read if you are interested in the CA initiative system.
The initiative system in CA has been taken over by big corporations that have the money and power to confuse voters and convince them to make decisions that favor the corporate interests, instead of the interests of the state and the people. In essence, initiative often serve the exact opposite purpose it was created for by being a weapon for corporations instead of a tool for the people to block corporate power.
One of the things big corporations do is pay signature gatherers - who usually have no interest or knowledge about what they are getting people to sign - to gather signatures to put the corporate propositions on the ballot. SB448 would have signature gatherers wear signs so the people signing their sheet know whether they are paid. This supports transparency and promotes democracy.
Frankly, it doesn’t go far enough. there should be a law that prohibits signature gatherers from being paid at all. This would stop one of the methods corporations use to control the initiative system. Hopefully, we would then just have people who are passionate about an issue out gathering signatures. You know, the CITIZENS IN CHARGE instead of the corporations.
Paul Jacob lives just outside the DC beltway in Virginia; which is where Citizen in Charge and 2/3 of our staff are based. The other 1/3 of the organization is based in California. Note the addresses at the bottom of this website. As for Paul being an “outside agitator,” your comment has ironic timing: tomorrow (Aug. 4) is the anniversary of finding the slain civil rights workers in Mississippi in 1964. They too were accused of being outside agitators. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/slain-civil-rights-workers-fo…
Yes, we travel to CA and other states to agitate for the idea that the voters ought to have more open access to the initiative for deciding the political issues that affect their lives.
The Economist article you site was poorly researched and merely echoes the standard myths repeated by those who don’t like the say Californians have in their government. Paul refutes the many false claims in a letter here: http://www.citizensincharge.org/blog/paul/the-economist-gets-it-all-wron…
It is California’s legislature that has been taken over by special interests, and they want to legislate so many restrictions against the initiative that regular citizens can’t use it to check their power. Bills like SB 448, that you mention, are part of that: they make it harder and more costly to collect signatures for ballot measures.
If corporations “confuse voters and convince them,” then why did PG&E, who outspent the NO side 161 to 1, lose their recent initiative? What about the many other instances where the people vote against the side that spends the most? The track record of actual votes shows that voters can beat big corporations at the ballot box.
No measure has qualified for CA’s ballot since the 1980’s without using paid signature gathering: it’s nearly impossible given the huge signature requirement and short collection period. Without paying professional circulators, no measure would make the ballot and CA voters would have fewer choices.
Outlawing paid circulators, as you advocate, was also found in a 9-0 US Sup Ct vote (Meyer v Grant) to violate the First Amendment. Paid signature gatherers are not a new corporate invention, but have been part of the process since CA got I&R 100 years ago in 1911, and they are an essential part of the system that still has the potential to put the citizens in charge better than any other.