I just finished watching the first television commercial released by the campaign to pass all of the measures on the May Special Election ballot. You can see the piece below. When you watch the commercial, you will notice that something is missing. The actor on the screen, playing the dad who is going to play catch with his kid, and vote for the ballot propositions, is the poster child for the ignorant voter that the ballot campaign is trying to fool. He tells us that he needs to go out, "to help hold the line on higher taxes," by voting for these measures…
Whoops. Someone forgot to tell the Leave It To Beaver dad in this commercial that his vote for the Propositions doesn’t hold the line on taxes — on the contrary, if he votes for the package, he will be triggering a $16 billion dollar increase in taxes, including higher sales taxes on the next ball and mitt he wants to buy for his son. The parent portrayed in this add will also be voting to take away a $200 tax credit for the child in the spot, money that perhaps he would be using to buy his son a uniform for his little league team…
You also have to applaud the moxie of our state’s politicians, who are the masterminds behind these ballot measure, for having the gall to actually say that these measures are to reign in the politicians. Nice touch.
It much be very convenient to be a script writer for television spots like this. I can hear the direction that they are given by Schwarzenegger, Bass, Villines, Cogdill and Steinberg — "Hey, do what you have to do and don’t ask us. We want to be able to tell folks that we had no say over the misleading verbiage in commercials like this one."
Proponents of the ballot measures should be straight up with the voters, and treat them like adults. They should acknowledge the $16 billion in increased taxes, but make their case for why they think the taxes are appropriate in this particular situation. The way they are campaigning now is sleazy — like a used car salesman who shows you a beautiful car, but doesn’t tell you there is a problem with the engine…