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2006 Initiative Voter Guide

There are 13 initiatives on the Nov. 7 2006 ballot. PowerPAC provides its endorsements here. Or download a printable PDF for election day.

Prop 1A – More “autopilot” budgeting

This is an unnecessary measure to protect transportation funding that would only further hamstring the Legislature in times of budget crisis, putting funding for schools and health care in jeopardy. Vote No.

Prop 1B – $19.9 billion for highways and mass transit

Part of the bond package developed to help rebuild California's infrastructure. This measure would raise money for transportation improvements including roads and transit. Vote Yes.

Prop 1C – $2.85 billion for housing and emergency shelters

A bond measure to finance emergency shelters, other housing-related programs, cleanup of old industrial areas. Vote Yes.

Prop 1D – $10.4 billion for K-12 school facilities

This bond measure would fund new school construction, modernization, relief of overcrowding, and other school infrastructure needs. Vote Yes.

Prop 1E – $4.1 billion for disaster preparedness and flood prevention

This bond measure will provide funds for flood protection, levee protection in the San Francisco Delta, and storm water management. Vote Yes.

Prop 83 – Draconian addition to California’s already tough sex-offender laws

Couched in the guise of public safety, Prop 83 is a draconian measure that would fail California just as similar measures have failed states in other parts of the country.

The law’s most punitive components – including restricting where people can live and tracking them with GPS monitoring for life – would apply much more broadly than to child molesters or “dangerous sex offenders,” as proponents claim. They would also apply to anyone convicted of a misdemeanor offense including indecent exposure and illegal possession of pornography. Prop 83 is a punitive-only approach to criminal justice that is not rooted in the science of what’s effective in terms of rehabilitating people, but is pure political posturing. Vote No.

Prop 84 – $5.4 billion for drinking water quality and park improvements

This initiative will help ensure that California has adequate water supplies. It will provide bond funding for projects for safe drinking water, flood control, protection of rivers, lakes, streams, forest and wildlife conservation, coastal protection and state parks. Vote Yes.

Prop 85 – Threatens Teen Safety and a Woman’s Right to Choose

For the second time in one year, anti-choice extremists have put this parental notification initiative on the ballot. Prop 85 endangers California’s most vulnerable teens by requiring parental notification prior to abortion. While parents rightfully want to be involved in their teenagers’ lives, laws cannot mandate good family communication. In the real world, some teens live with violent or sexually abusive parents. Rather than going to an abusive parent, some teens will resort to back-alley abortions or even consider suicide.

Backers of Prop 85 make the absurd claim that teens who can’t go to their parents will go to a judge to bypass the law. Not only is it preposterous to think that a scared teen from an abusive home can successfully navigate our judicial bureaucracy, a judge is not what she needs. She needs a counselor and quality medical care without delays. Studies show that the vast majority of teens involve their parents in decisions about pregnancies. Health care providers and family planning clinics already report abuse and counsel teens to talk to their families. Prop 85 is unsafe, unrealistic and unnecessary. Vote No.

See http://www.NoOn85.org for more information.

Prop 86 – Money for children’s health and emergency-room care

This measure will raise the cost of cigarettes in California by $2.60 per pack, with the money going to support children’s health care coverage, emergency-room services for the public, and anti-smoking programs.

It is not a perfect solution, as it relies on a declining revenue stream for these critical services, but studies also show it would prevent 700,000 kids from becoming adult smokers and prevent 300,000 smoking-related deaths. Vote Yes.

See http://yesprop86.com

Prop 87 – Make Oil Companies Pay Their Fair Share

Prop 87 would direct $4 billion to reduce California's dependence on gasoline and diesel by 25% over the next 10 years by increasing use of clean energy sources. The effort will be funded by oil drilling fees paid by oil companies not by consumers. This measure will provide financial incentives to make clean energy options more affordable in order to expand their use. By reducing oil consumption, Prop 87 will reduce pollution that causes global warming, asthma, lung disease and cancer.

Oil companies now pay California almost nothing to drill here, while they pay billions of dollars in drilling fees to every other oil producing state. Prop 87 also makes it illegal for oil companies to raise gas prices or to pass the cost of the fee to consumers. Vote Yes.

See http://www.yesoncleanenergy.com for more information.

Prop 88 – Trojan horse for elitist education funding

PowerPAC is not opposed to raising taxes to pay for essential services like public education, but Prop 88 is not the right way to resolve the problem of our under-funded schools. The $470 million a year Prop 88 would allocate to schools includes more than $100 million that is earmarked only for “academically successful” schools, according to how they rank within the state’s standardized testing system. Under-performing schools are already at a disadvantage in this state, and Prop 88 would widen the gap. Vote No.

Prop 89 – Level the Political Playing Field and Curb Corruption

Prop 89 would establish a system of full public funding for statewide and legislative election campaigns, using money from a modest increase in corporate income tax. PowerPAC views Prop 89 as a civil rights issue. People of color do not get a fair shake in the current political system, and Prop 89 would resolve a few key aspects of this problem. Publicly funded campaigns in other states have proven to significantly increase participation among communities of color, both as winning candidates and as voters.

The new system also would ensure voters in a community choose their leaders, not just contributors in the wealthy parts of town. And perhaps most importantly, a Clean Money system would allow officials representing communities of color to more directly focus on the needs of their constituents, rather than always looking over one shoulder for approval from the corporate interests that too often finance their campaigns. Prop 89 will level the playing field and make elections about ideas, not money. Vote Yes.

See http://www.89now.org/ for more information.

Prop 90 – Deceptive and costly taxpayer trap that will harm the environment

This measure masquerades as “eminent domain reform,” but actually includes extreme provisions that would erode the state’s ability to pass laws that protect natural resources, wildlife and habitat, ensure water quality and adequate water supplies, and regulate growth and development. It would cost taxpayers billions every year to fight off frivolous lawsuits filed in the name of “property rights,” and is being backed by right-wing conservatives who are pushing similar measures in other states across the country. Vote No.

See http://www.noprop90.com/ for more information

Polling

Statewide Poll of Voters of Color

Latinos, the fastest growing demographic in California and a key swing vote in the state, overwhelmingly favor progressive policies including single-payer health care for California, greater access to higher education and reforming the Three-Strikes and You’re Out law, according to an April 2006 poll commissioned by PowerPAC.org.

The poll shows more than 60% of Latinos support either Democratic challenger over Gov. Schwarzenegger in the general election this fall. On immigration, the poll showed that Californians want their state leaders to address the issue, and showed broad support across demographics for solutions that include a path to citizenship for undocumented workers.

Download the Governor's race poll results.
Download the poll results on immigration.
Download the PowerPoint presentation on the poll.

Research

A Strategic Approach to a Just Democracy

California has the largest electorate in the country with 17 million registered voters. Now a majority minority state, we have an uphill battle in ensuring a representative electorate, with 3.7 million eligible, unregistered people of color and another 1.2 million registered people of color who do not turn out to the polls. A geographically dispersed and extremely diverse state, we face numerous challenges in tackling the vote gap and ensuring participation by people of color.

Developing a Winning Strategy for 2006. In an effort to strategically focus our efforts and investment, PowerPAC.org embarked on an unprecedented quantitative and qualitative research project. The goal of the research project was to narrow our targeting to particular regions – from the county level to cities to political districts and neighborhoods – through in-depth demographic and voting trend research coupled with an analysis of political and grassroots electoral and organizing operations.

Based on our model for electoral organizing, we used the following factors to analyze and identify prospective targeted areas:  

• Total People of Color Population and Percent People of Color
• Percent Progressive Registered Voters
• Total Unregistered Voters
• The number of people per non-profit organization
• Percent Hispanic Eligible Voters
• Percent Yes on 72 (health care initiative) Votes
• Electoral Activity by local, statewide & national players
• The number of hotly contested statewide campaigns and the number of local, municipal campaigns
• Interest by political donors and national electoral organizations

SNAPSHOT

Inland Empire Cities: A Majority People of Color

	Total Pop	% People of Color
Riverside	255,166	55.4%
San Bernardino	185,401	71.1%
Ontario	158,007	73.4%
Moreno Valley	142,381	67.8%
Fontana	128,929	76.1%
Corona City	124,966	53%
Rialto	91,873	78.5%
Victorville	64,029	52.5%

Key Findings: 15 Counties & 112 Cities

Our research focused on 15 strategic counties yielding insight on electoral trends. 

• We found 112 cities (populations greater than 25,000) that were a majority people of color.
• Re-confirmed Southern California as the powerhouse for potential growth in electoral participation.
• 112 cities were majority people of color, but almost all did not have an electorate that was reflective of that majority.
• The participation problem for Southern California is equally a voter registration and voter participation problem whereas in Northern California, unregistered voter percentages are much higher. In the case of the Inland Empire, 53% of eligible voters did not participate in the 2004 elections.
• There has been very little political investment in progressive electoral work in California’s Red counties.
• Despite Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside being considered California’s Red counties, there is the potential to flip municipal and state seats from conservative to progressive given the number of registered progressive voters not turning out to the polls.