Let me start off my commentary this morning with a congratulatory message for United States Senator John McCain.  Senator, your win here in California was impressive, and your overall performance around the country gives you bragging rights to be able to say that in 2008, it was Super McCain Tuesday.  Congrats on your big win!  A lot of folks were working hard on the McCain efforts in the final push, and so I also want to congratulate all of them. 

Tomorrow I will be devoting my column to sharing more thoughts with FR readers about a John McCain nomination, but for today, I want to devote the rest of my column to a very important victory — THE DEFEAT OF PROPOSITION 93!!
 
As FR readers well know, since I have devoted so much ‘cyber ink’ to Proposition 93, it was a terrible measure constructed out of the hubris of now-retiring Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.  The entire campaign to pass the measure, which contained a specific provision to allow dozens of termed-out California State Legislators to serve well beyond even the new terms articulated in 93, was constructed around what had been labeled, THE BIG LIE.  Attorney General Jerry Brown cleverly opened the summary of the measure on the ballot stating that this measure "reduced" the amount of time that a legislator could serve.  Well, in the end, the voters rejected Proposition 93 and the big lie.  Right now, Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez is probably taking some photos of his big plush office, while his colleagues are undoubted in full politico mode, determining who can put together the votes to replace Nunez as Speaker. 
 
The passage of Proposition 93 would not have happened if it weren’t for a core group of key opponents who really stepped up to the plate in a big way.  First and foremost, we have to congratulate Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner.  Here is a humble guy, who has plenty of other things on his plate running the huge California Department of Insurance.  Still, he saw the end-run that Senate President Don Perata, Nunez and others were taking on our state’s term-limits law, and was clearly incensed.  Enough so that he decided to make the defeat of The Big Lie is top political priority for yesterday’s election.  He devoted much of his time to this goal, and he also opened his (considerable) check book and donated $2.5 million dollars to the campaign to stop 93.  Poizner was also able to leverage his own giving to raise millions in additional contributions as well.  While all of the final campaign reports will ultimately tell the tale, I think it is safe to say that while the Yes on 93 campaign will have outspent Poizner’s No on 93 campaign considerably — the efforts headed up by Poizner to offset the vast sums raised by Nunez were enough to carry the day. 
 
Of course, jumping right in with Poizner were the patriots at United States Term Limits.  They also donated well over a million dollars to the opposition to 93.  And another key player was the California Correctional Peace Officers Association (the public employee union for state prison guards).  While they had their own agenda, I’m sure, I am reminded of Sun Tzu’s adage, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."  Let’s not forget to mention that the New Majority played an important role in financing opposition to the measure.
 
Since I was an advocate for the defeat of 93, but not an official part of the Poizner-led effort, I am not privy to all of the places where resources were generated to fight off The Big Lie, but this is a good start.
 
There were also a core group of people working diligently on the No on 93 side.  Again, I don’t know then all, so I am sure I am missing someone.  But let me start off, after again mentioning Steve Poizner, with a hearty FR congratulations to my good friend Kevin Spillane.  If one could bottle the passion and energy that Kevin put into battling 93, and sell it in stores, one could make a fortune.  Kevin, your efforts literally made the difference.  Congratulations.  Other team members included Wayne Johnson, Brian Seitchik, Bob Adney and Robert Molnar, to name a few.
 
Moving beyond the acknowledgements for the David vs. Goliath effort here to stop 93, there is an obvious important public policy victory to tout here.  I think that history will show that the vote on Prop. 93 was a huge reaffirmation of strong term-limits by California voters.  I think a substantial number of those that voted for 93 were victims of The Big Lie, casting a vote that they thought would have the opposite effect. 
 
So perhaps this defeat will finally put a fork in the efforts of the politician-class to try and revive the era when being a state legislator was a decades long career choice.  Perhaps there will now be an understanding that Californians want a citizen-legislator, with elected representatives who go to Sacramento for a few years, not a lifetime, and then "come home" to live under the laws they have passed. 
 
The defeat of Proposition 93 was a big victory and one that should be savored, but not for long.  The reality is that as long as we do not have fairly drawn legislative districts, the forces of limited government in the Capitol will always be the underdogs…
 
But for a little while, we can savor the sweet victory.  That said, we’ll make a standing offer to Fabian Nunez or any of his termed out colleagues.  If they send over their resumes, we’ll get them up on the FlashReport, and help them to find a new job, one that is not in the State Capitol.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.