Aftermath

I was happy to find this morning the following article against the Mormon backlash. It is written by someone who was opposed to Prop 8 and is not written by a Mormon, for those of you who require that in order to believe it's not a biased article.

Here is part of the article, click here to read in full.

Also, the No-On-8s outrage over the $1 million single donor is as cynical and phony as it gets. When talking ballot props, it is absurd to single out one donor or a group of “followers of the Mormon Church” as possibly “exerting too much influence on the state’s political process.” A single donor giving $1 million? Hundreds or even thousands of Mormons giving 40% to the campaign? That’s nothing. Almost every measure on the ballot is significantly funded by a single individual or well-funded organization:

• The Humane Society gave $1.5 million for Prop. 2 (20% of total)
• San Diego-based publisher James Hollman gave $1.5 million for Prop. 4 (20% of total)
  
• Billionaire activist and philanthropist George Soros and lobbyist Bob Wilson each gave $1.4 million for Prop. 5 (40% of total)
• Billionaire tech mogul and accused drug trafficker spent $1 million on Prop 6 and $4.8 million on Prop. 9. (62% of Prop. 6 total and almost 100% of Prop. 9 total)
• Arizona billionaire Peter Sperling spent $9 million on Prop. 7 (almost 90% of total).

• T. Boone Pickens Clean Energy Sales Corp, who stands to profit from Prop. 10 spent $15 million on the measure. (88% of total).

If 40% of Californians are concerned about Mormons “exerting control over our political process,”, they should be completely freaked out by the Humane Society, the eccentric billionaires with axes to grind, and the natural gas tycoon whose ballot measure is motivated entirely by self-interest.

The problem here isn’t who gave what to which measure. The problem here is with the entire ballot proposition system, which instead of preventing “special interest” influence in the legislature by taking the matter directly to voters, allows for billionaires and well-funded organizations to completely dominate the process, no matter what the issue.

I completely agree with the last paragraph. I think there should definitely be a limit per person/organization like there is for elected officials.

Here is my brother-in-law's blog about this issue.