California Vote by Mail in Safe Hands; Remember to Exercise Your Right to Vote
Democracy’s most sacred right, voting, is already underway in California with all 21 million registered voters having received a mail-in ballot. While voting by mail may have stirred controversy on a national level, here in California, we have grown comfortable with making our decisions around the kitchen table, marking our choices on candidates at the […]
CalChamber Perspective on the Top Two Reform
The recent Institute of Governmental Studies (IGS) post-election seminar in which I was a panelist produced a few news stories and a mountain of academic papers about the recent electoral reforms enacted by voters—open primary, redistricting reform and term limits. I’ve read the stories and the academic works and want to add a practical perspective […]
Behind the Prop 10 Defeat, the Pickens Plan Will Go On
As the campaign manager for Proposition 10 and an early and active member of the McCain for President finance team Tuesday night, for me, could be viewed as a personal and professional disaster. After 30 plus years knocking around California politics, I’ve experienced worse.
In 1992 I was the California campaign manager for President George Bush and that was an equally disastrous year for we Republicans. I remember the press availability the morning after the election that I participated in with some of my colleagues from the Pete Wilson organization. At the merciful conclusion of the media event I looked pretty shell-shocked and the sage Dan Walters said to me, “Don’t worry kid, it’s our job to bayonet the wounded.”
So wounded I am again some 16 years later and I feel compelled to answer this question, “Marty, how the Hell did you lose the Proposition 10 campaign when you were funded and your opposition had no money?”
To which I answer, “It was harder than you think.”