SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Last year, millionaire Ron Unz spent $750,000 of his own money to promote a ballot measure aimed at virtually eliminating bilingual education in California schools.
Now the Silicon Valley entrepreneur is dipping into his deep pockets again, this time to promote a ballot proposal intended to undermine the influence of major donors on state politics."We really think the campaigns in California have been much too much dominated by special interests, the powerful and wealthy corporations," Unz said Thursday as he submitted four initiatives to state officials.
Unz, a Republican who ran an unsuccessful campaign for governor in 1994, is teaming up with Tony Miller, a former Democratic candidate for secretary of state and lieutenant governor, to promote the proposals to limit campaign donations.
All the initiatives contain the same campaign-related provisions, including limits on donations to state and local candidates, a ban on contributions from corporations and partial public financing for candidates.
The per-election donation limits would be $5,000 for statewide candidates and $3,000 for candidates for the Legislature and local offices. There are currently no limits on contributions.
Other key provisions would toughen donation disclosure provisions by, among other things, requiring that contributions of $1,000 or more to campaigns that raise at least $25,000 a year be disclosed within 24 hours on the Internet.
"There have been many people who have said they very much support the proposal except for one or two elements," Unz said. "I don't know if they are sincere or not but we are calling their bluff."
Depending on which of the four initiatives they promote, they'll need to collect signatures from up to 670,816 voters to get it on the March 2000 ballot.
Representatives for both major political parties wouldn't take a position on the proposals.
GOP spokesman Chris Bertelli said Republican leaders were "not closing the door on any of them, but we need to see stuff in writing before we can say what we are for and not for."