For Immediate Release: May 19, 2005
Contact: Ned Wigglesworth 916-447-4457

Fundraising Hypocrisy – Schwarzenegger Raises Funds for Ballot Agenda From Opponents of Initiative Process and Independent Redistricting Commissions

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger travels this week to Florida, Illinois, and Texas for a series of fundraisers for his 2005 ballot initiative agenda. In prominent attendance at the Florida fundraisers will be Governor Jeb Bush and members of the Florida Chamber of Commerce, who are working together to roll back the ballot initiative process in Florida. This hypocrisy highlights the need for reforming the way initiative campaigns are funded, according to nonpartisan watchdog TheRestofUs.org.

“The initiative process is the people’s process for grabbing the wheel from the politicians who ignore us and their paymasters who deplore us to ensure that our democracy is truly representative,” said Ned Wigglesworth, analyst for TheRestofUs.org. “But when we allow five-, six-, even seven-figure donations into the process, we hand over the keys to the same handful of wealthy interests who already run the show in the legislature.”

The efforts to curtail the initiative process in Florida, led by the state Chamber of Commerce and supported by Governor Bush, have focused on the ability of out-of-state interests to corrupt the process with well-financed campaigns. Schwarzenegger has held fundraisers around the country seeking money for his ballot campaign, collecting millions from out-of-state interests to fund his ballot agenda. Schwarzenegger has been campaigning for independent commissions to draw legislative and congressional districts; Bush does not support the drive for an independent redistricting commission in Florida.

“Each of these guys has it half-right: Bush is right that out-of-state interests have no place spending money to influence California’s initiative process, which should belong to the people of California,” said Derek Cressman, director for TheRestofUs.org. “Schwarzenegger is right that an independent redistricting commission would allow voters in California and Florida to pick their elected officials, not the other way around.”

“The one thing these guys have in common is money – Schwarzenegger needs it, Gov. Bush and his allies have it,” according to Wigglesworth. “But while these guys are getting what they want, the rest of us in California and Florida are left with an initiative process dominated by money and a system of drawing districts rigged to meet the needs of politicians, not voters.”

For more information, please visit: http://www.therestofus.org/FloridaFundraisingHypocrisy.htm

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Background: TheRestofUs.org is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization working to make democracy work for ordinary citizens. TheRestofUs.org is involved in campaign finance ballot measures in Oregon and Ohio and independent redistricting policy in California, Florida, and Ohio. We will soon file an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review and uphold Vermont’s mandatory spending limits. We also support federal efforts to eliminate the 527 loophole for soft money electioneering.