Charles T. Munger, Jr., has spent over $10,000,000 this year putting Proposition 54 on the ballot and advertising for it. See this story. Proposition 54 would prevent the legislature from voting on any bill unless it had been written and posted on the state legislature’s web page at least 72 hours previously.
Ironically, if this measure had been in effect in 2009, the legislature would not have been able to put the top-two measure on the ballot. Early in the morning of February 19, 2009, the legislature wrote the top-two constitutional amendment and passed it, between 3 a.m. and 6 a.m. The legislature was meeting all night, trying to pass a budget. State Senator Abel Maldonado said in the middle of that night that he would vote for the budget, and thus enable it to pass, if the legislature first put his top-two proposal on the ballot. The bills to do that, SB 6 and SCA 4, passed before the public had any knowledge of these bills, and without any legislative hearings. Munger was the measure’s leading financial backer in 2010 when it was on the ballot as Proposition 14.
Many otherwise well-informed individuals do not remember, or never knew, how the top-two measure was put on the ballot. For instance, political scientist Seth Masket writes in his 2016 book, “The Inevitable Party”, that the 2010 ballot measure was an initiative put on the ballot with a petition campaign.
Thank you for this notice, Richard. I shall definitely now vote against Prop 54. It just goes to show that here in Calif. our citizen initiative capability has been taken over by big-money special interests.
Fact that he was big backer of the Top Two proposition and now this just illustrates how they endeavor to manipulate state law by initiatives to control legislature even more.
What zillionaire will spend zillions to get —
P.R. and NONPARTISAN App.V. — to save Democracy in the USA
Will ALL reforms be too late — due to the coming election night 8 Nov 2016 ???
Gene, I understand your feelings, but I have already voted and I voted “Yes” on 54, because it is good policy. And in any event, I expect it to pass overwhelmingly. As the article says, no one is spending any money to oppose it, and it is the sort of ballot measure that is easy to understand and gets a favorable reaction for virtually any ordinary voter.
The state Assembly should violate this proposal if it passes including the State Senate and take it to a federal judge in a major lawsuit .
This is a case of political making strange bedfellows, as in most of us here would be again Charles Munger on Top Two Primary, but most of us would be with him on the Legislative Transparency Act.
Should read against above and not again.
States should adopt the legislative procedures in the Texas Constitution.
Features:
One session per biennium (two years), of limited length.
Low compensation.
Bills must be filed by a deadline, and must be heard in committee in both houses, and it is illegal to change the subject matter by amendment. A conference committee must have permission to go outside the bounds of the senate and house versions.