Angelides Endorses Public Financing Ballot Measure

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides on Thursday announced his support for Proposition 89, a measure on the Nov. 7 statewide ballot sponsored by the California Nurses Association to create public campaign financing, the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Wildermuth, San Francisco Chronicle, 8/4). Angelides made the announcement at a rally in Oakland hosted by CNA (Yamamura, Sacramento Bee, 8/4).

The measure would limit campaign contributions and create a public financing system for state candidates, in part by levying a 0.2% tax on corporations.

Angelides said such a system would be "a lot better than what we have now, where big money, HMOs, insurance companies, oil companies, are dictating too many policies" in California (Williams, AP/Contra Costa Times, 8/4).

However, many unions that support Angelides have joined an alliance to defeat the measure (San Francisco Chronicle, 8/4).

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) has said he opposes the initiative because it would increase taxes and because of his experiences with publicly financed campaigns in Europe (Salladay, Los Angeles Times, 8/4).

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