** Former President Bill Clinton appears at a 5 PM rally in front of San Francisco City Hall on Wednesday for Proposition 87, the oil extraction tax to fund alternative fuels.
Screen legend Robert Redford has been campaigning around the state for Prop 87 the past few days. The initiative holds a lead in private polling, but not much of one.
** With debate increasing over one of the less heralded battles on the California ballot, that over Proposition 90, which would make eminent domain more difficult, a new poll shows Oregon voters having a case of buyers’ remorse over their 2004 adoption of a similar measure. Many worry that passage of Prop 90 would make it harder to implement major public works projects, such as those contained in Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Big Bang Bonds infrastructure package.
** Monitor global and national energy prices via Bloomberg. Natural gas prices are down on record U.S. supply.
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I see that Mr. Clinton is back again for Proposition 87. A jury rigged top of the ticket is better than none at all, I suppose.
Those were the Schwarzeneger closer TV ads from ‘03 and ‘06 last night.
I wanted to see how the two Arnold closer TV spots looked together in the NWN environment.
They’ll be back, so to speak, along with the report, early in the week.
Proposition 90 is not perfect. But right now the deck is stacked against home and property owners. The government abuse is rampant as local governments around California ‘condemn’ or declare as ‘blight’ property because under the banner of ‘redevelopment’ the planners want to replace people’s homes with ‘higher use’ purposes (ie… tax generating ventures – car dealerships, big box stores, etc).
I’m voting for 90 knowing that it is far from perfect, because the system in place now is even further from it.
Clinton to the rescue?
The real question is why the pro-90 side has been mute. Looking at the recent filings, the yes side spent $1.6 million on qualifying the thing on the ballot, yet they haven’t spent close to that amount in expenditures to actually pass the measure. I see no on 90 ads regularly (though not as often as Schwarzenegger, 86, or 87 ads), but nary a peep from the pro side. It’s almost like Howard Rich decided he’d have better luck passing initiatives in Washington and Arizona, with the smaller media buys required, than in California.
My favorite Redford movies are “Downhill Racer and The Horse Whisper”. I already voted yes on 87 but, Redford is like fine wine…
President Clinton stops the Tivo and is convincing.
I saw Jon “Flash” debating on “Inside OC” but, I am not supporting prop 90.
Viva Las Vegas, my favorite TV show.
Finally, our prayers go out to the families of the fallen and injured Firefighters and Deputies around the state of California. This has been a heart breaking week.
That was an awfully quick resolution to the James Caan cliffhanger.
IF the producers kill off Caan, I would riot! The relationships between Caan’s character, Cheryl Ladd and Molly Simms are wonderful. You have a CIA tough guy who loves and cherishes his wife and daughter…lovely.
Then you have Sam or wish you had Sam!
…Now we have a new spin on Caan, rejoining the CIA and flying off to fight terrorism…very politically correct…good versus evil…may the hot guy win!
I probably would kick Samantha out of bed.
Isn’t Prop 90 going to lose?
Can’t you give us something about the Angerlides campaign to laugh about today?
Nice to see every Democrat who ever campaigned in Iowa support the “alternative energy” proposition. I guess ADM will be able to harvest when the corn is “high as a donkey’s eye.”
Bill,
Even I wouldn’t kick Sam out of bed!
I don’t think Sam has a heart of gold.
The Greenberg Research survey, which supposedly shows a lot of “buyer remorse” over Oregon’s Measure 37, is a lot closer to being a push poll than an objective snapshot of voters’ opinions. I was immediately suspicious when I noticed that Greenberg Research has a long client list of Democratic candidates and liberal special interest groups; that the survey was commissioned by the anti-property-rights Defenders of Wildlife organization; and that the sample size was only 405 registered voters.
Then I looked at the actual questions. They are all stacked against Measure 37 to deliberately elicit negative views. The questions ask whether Measure 37 has “created a lot of uncertainty” or “opens the door to more development” or “caused a lot of chaos” or “cost taxpayers millions of dollars” or “was a mistake”. Where are the questions about whether it saved people’s homes from condemnation or provided just compensation for government takings or reigned in eminent domain abuses? Nowhere.
Then the survey has a series of questions listing anecdotal examples of Measure 37 horror stories, and in each case asks how that effects voters’ opinions. Where are the examples of people’s homes and businesses being saved from condemnation or cases where big developers or retailers were unable to employ the government to transfer other people’s private property to themselves? Nowhere.
If someone wanted to spend the time and money, it would be an interesting experiment to conduct a similar biased poll about Proposition 90 here in California before the election. I bet it would be easy to come up with a majority (perhaps even a 2/3 majority) who opposed Prop 90 when asked such loaded questions. By the same token, a poll biased in favor of Prop 90, asking only favorable questions and citing only examples of eminent domain abuses, would likely garner a 2/3 majority (or better) in favor of the initiative.
So what does that tell you about voters’ true opinions? Virtually nothing. I am optimistic that Prop 90 will win on November 7th, hopefully by a comfortable margin. And my guess is that an initiative to repeal Measure 37 in Oregon would lose. If Defenders of Wildlife and its fellow travelers really believe that Measure 37 is that unpopular now, why don’t they promote an initiative measure to repeal it? I suspect the reason is that they are fully aware of just how bogus this survey is. They are only using it as propaganda against similar measures in other states.
How is Prop 90 doing in the California polls?
“Comisionado de Seguros: Poizner”
http://www.laopinion.com/editorial/
Steve Poizner was endorsed by “La Opinion” today.. which is one of the two papers that endorsed Angelides.
Great catch, Mike!
That’s quite a coup for Poizner as a moderate Republican running for California insurance commissioner against one of the highest ranking Latino politicians in the country in the form of Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante.
The only Proposition 90 polling data I’ve seen is from Datamar. Their survey published on October 15th showed Prop 90 ahead by 56% to 30.2% with 13.8% undecided, which was a slippage from their September survey which had Prop 90 ahead by 61.3% to 24%.
Datamar claims to have surveyed 1,230 high-propensity voters, giving them an MOE of 2.9%, but they use an automatic telephone dialer. So I’m a little suspicious of the absolute accuracy of their numbers. Still, a 26% lead is pretty substantial. Even if the actual percentages are off a ways, and even if the race continues to tighten as we approach the election, that appears to give Prop 90 a very good chance of winning.
I’d be very interested to know if anyone else has some recent, objective poll numbers for Prop 90.
Ah.
You are bagging on a poll by Greenberg, one of the most credible pollsters in the country.
And citing a Datamar poll.
I have no doubt that Greenberg can conduct accurate polls when his clients really want to know where things stand. This wasn’t one of them. This was a deliberately biased survey intended to be used as propaganda.
And I made it pretty clear that I take the Datamar poll with a large grain of salt. I would love to have other data on how Prop 90 is doing, but that’s the only thing I’ve seen that even gives a hint.
Yes, as in something you don’t agree with.
I’m glad I’m through dealing with the endless waves of great Angelides spinners.
I am through with that, right?
The light has dawned?
Word on the street is that Green Day is going to play before or after Clinton.
I have no doubt that Greenberg can conduct accurate polls when his clients really want to know where things stand. This wasn’t one of them. This was a deliberately biased survey intended to be used as propaganda.
And I made it pretty clear that I take the Datamar poll with a large grain of salt. I would love to have other data on how Prop 90 is doing, but that’s the only thing I’ve seen that even gives a hint.
Well, Phil Angelides has won the student mock election. I think this is the ONLY poll he has ever led in.
You already said that, Daniel. And I said it’s nice that the Angelides spin is over.
Bill,
Go drink some wine. Relax. It’s Sunday evening and folks, even nice folks like me, shouldn’t be bothering you. So, relax. Drink some wine. Think of better things.
I have no idea why my comment got posted twice. I don’t believe I hit the Post button twice. Oh well, computer glitches sometimes happen.
Bill, you lost me with your “Angelides spin” comment. That is in reference to what?
The only other poll on Prop. 90 other than the Datamar poll was the Field Poll taken in late July showing Prop. 90 leading 46 percent Yes, 31 percent No, with with 23 percent undecided. Interesting that it couldn’t crack 50 percent back in July. There is a chance that Prop. 90 may get thrown out in court if passed as a violation of the “single subject” clause of the California Constitution. An initiative that prohibits the government from taking private property to give to another private property owner is mixed in with language that prohibits the government from passing “consumer” and “workplace” regulations such as telemarketing fraud and maternity leave might very well be a violation of the “single subject rule.”