Equal Opportunity...Or Not?

Given that Governor Schwarzenegger had spent over $26 million on the California Special election by August of this year, it seems obvious that by November 8, this number will have reached well over $50 million. Even after having learned the price behind the propositions currently at issue, the Iniative Bloggers retained a grain of hope that an idealized grassroots iniative would be possible to create. The reasoning behind such a process is that hypothetically, anyone in California's hyper-democratically oriented society with a realistic and beneficial vision for governmental reform should be able to propose that vision to the general public. Unfortunately, as it turns out, the only "anyone's" who can indeed exercise this right, are those with not only great ideas, but also very deep pockets.

The voice of reason and harsh reality in the case of the quest forged by the Iniative Bloggers was an attorney whose firm handles lots of initiatives for groups pursuing primarily local iniatives. A phone call aimed at consulting her extensive expertise laid out the tedious and very, very expensive steps behind launching a "grassroots" ballot measure. The particular ballot measure that the Iniative Bloggers had in mind adddressed environmentally-friendly California public transportation, its increased institution ot be exact. To many, this would seem fairly straightforward and an attempt at contributing to the general public. To the system, however, this is much, much more complex and, of course, costly.

To break it down, on top of the lawyer's own services (consultation alone running at about $350 per hour for tender hearted practitioners and more like $500 per hour in most firms) propositions require the additional expertise of: signature gatherers (1.1 signatures to be gathered in order to guarantee 800,000 valid signatures, each signature running one to two dollars resulting in at least one million dollars), a political consultant (mandatory and running rates of an absolute minimum of "several thousand dollars"), an advertising/publicity representative (necessary for any proposition's success, and "probably the most expensive component"), and a treasurer (actually mandated by the law and "very, very expensive" to say the least). In order for this iniative to be at all plausible, it must have a proposal for the way in which it will be funded. The options for such funding are a bond, a tax, or a way of redirecting some already-existing portion of the budget toward this new measure. In every case, some resistant response is sure to be triggered in some opposing party, and in order to determine the least offensive and therefore most strongly supported form of funding, it will probably require the consultation fees of economists and/or other experts in such areas. No matter which funding option is decided on, this large scope and great change would require to an amendment to the state Constitution, also known as a very ambitious feat. The grand total? Probably somewhere between three to five million dollars. How's that for an equal opportunity?