No on Proposition 32 Campaign

Linda Phillips of the League of Women Voters was joined by Layne Wheeler, president Santa Barbara Teachers Association; Tony Pighetti, president of the Santa Barbara City Firefighters Local 525; and Professor Elaine Boris, University of California Santa Barbara.

“Proposition 32 claims to be ‘political reform,’ but in reality was intentionally written to create special exemptions for billionaire businessmen and business special interests, giving them even more political power to write their own set of rules.” –said Phillips.

Prop 32 was placed on the ballot by the leaders of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, the group that was the driving force behind the Citizens United case that led to the explosion of Super PACs on to the national political scene.

Just last week, an out-of-state committee linked to the billionaire oil tycoons the Koch brothers contributed over $4 million to the Yes on 32 campaign — and because the committee doesn’t disclose its donors, we’ll never know the true source of the money. This is just a glimpse of how California politics would be run if Prop 32 were to pass, with billionaire business interests pouring unlimited funds into secretive Super PACs to try to promote their agenda and silence the voice of the middle class.

Prop 32 is opposed by the state’s leading government reform groups, including the League of Women Voters, California Common Cause, Public Citizen and the California Clean Money Campaign, along with more than 100 public safety, labor, education, health care, consumer, environmental, religious, and senior organizations.