Big Bonds Winning; Oil Tax Doing Poorly

If the trend holds, it looks like the first half of the state propositions ballot will come up a winner, and the last half will falter for the most part. (Click here for results.)

That means the $37 billion bond package placed on the ballot by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic Legislature appears headed for a big win, as does an initiative to put GPS tracking devices on sex offenders, Proposition 83. In addition, voters are likely to approve a bond for water projects.

"Passage of the Rebuild California Plan marks a milestone for our state. It's more than triple the size of the historic state water project championed by Gov. Pat Brown in 1960," said state Senate leader Don Perata of Oakland, who championed the bonds.

On the other end of the ballot, most of the initiatives appear to be tracking poorly with about one-third of the votes counted. Big caveat at this point: Democrat-heavy Los Angeles County, as elections officials predicted, is lagging in its vote counting.

The biggest surprise appears to be how poorly Proposition 87 has been doing throughout the night — not because it couldn't lose, but because the vote tally was expected to be much closer. That oil tax initiative to pay for alternative fuels research prompted Big Oil to spend more than $100 million to defeat it, and real estate heir Stephen L. Bing, in photo, to shell out about $50 million of his own money in support. He even dragged out actor Brad Pitt in a last-days rally.

In a ballroom at the Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel, Proposition 87 campaign manager Chad Griffin told those assembled in the ball room, "This cause ends when we end our addiction to oil."

Tony Rubenstein, the man who came up with the idea for the Proposition 87 campaign and has worked on it for two years said, "The lesson if we win tonight is that $100 million worth of lies were not enough. And if we lose, the lesson is that $100 million worth of lies was not enough because we will lose by a fraction."

(Photo: Chris Jackson / Getty Images)

Comments

[C.J. Minster]

The lesson of Prop 87 is that Californians are really, truly addicted to oil. They're afraid they will have to pay this tax at the pump. No sound bite from President Clinton on t.v. or any of the other wasted millions on this proposition could convince them otherwise. In some ways, this proves that democracy can't be created by the upper class - that Californians don't walk lock step behind Hollywood money. Then again, people do seem to be enamored by a celebrity governor regardless of his record or his muddied past.

In the end, the results of this particular election don't matter. There's a cancer on our democracy - people are so alienated by the system that they don't even bother to do their civic duty and vote. And even less people pay attention and get involved in the political process beyond voting. We must figure out a way to get back control of the political process from Hollywood moguls, large corporations, and the sycophant politicians. Here's hoping we build a grassroots democracy in the coming decade.