If one was going to make a list of winners looking at the results of last night’s results in California — the BIG list is short — John McCain, Hillary Clinton, the Indian Tribes whose compacts were upheld, and last but certainly not least, STEVE POIZNER, because he led the successful effort to stop Proposition 93 from passing.

Night owl that he is, Insurance Commissioner Poizner sent over the following for FR readers:

Yesterday, the voters of California sent a resounding message to the politicians in Sacramento — stop trying to fool us, stop insulting our intelligence and stop putting your own careers ahead of the job we elected you to do.

Voters from virtually every age group, political party and geographic region saw through this misleading measure. They saw through the smoke and mirrors and recognized Prop. 93 for what it was – a deceptive, self-serving sham.  The voters said  — we want better accountability and transparency. Not games or excuses!

Since 1990 when they first approved term limits, California voters have consistently rejected cynical attempts by the political insiders and special interest to change them and Prop 93 was no different.
Prop. 93 was defeated because it was inherently dishonest with the voters about what Prop 93 would do and who would benefit from it – the politicians and the special interests.

In fact, those powerful politicians and special interests did everything in their power – and pocketbooks – to win. But we expected nothing less.  There were many people – especially Capitol insiders – who told me to stay out of this fight; that I would make enemies of very powerful people.  But defeating Prop 93 was never about taking on or punishing politicians. It was about holding elected officials accountable for their actions.   

The proponents of 93 promised to bundle redistricting reform with the term limits extensions in Prop 93. It not right for there to be no consequences for political leaders when they renege on an important promise–not once but twice.

The sweetheart provisions of Prop. 93, which would have allowed 42 incumbent politicians to remain in office, some for up to 20 years, were so outrageous that we – the voters, the grassroots activists, the media and those of us in elected to serve the people – needed to stand firm and say "No, we are not going to let you get away with such self-serving behavior." If we had, it would have set a terrible precedent and had disastrous consequences on a whole range of issues.  The politicians need to be reminded that the voters have higher standards – and we will hold them accountable to those standards.

The voters were absolutely right when they said to the Legislature on Election Day: Quit worrying about your political careers and start working on solutions to the state’s problems.

Unfortunately, the state’s problems are not new problems. But they are made worse when politicians spend more time and energy trying to stay in office than coming up with solutions to solve them.

Now that Prop 93 is behind us this Legislature needs to listen to the voters and get down to doing the people’s business, addressing the key issues of the day – from the state’s chronic budget deficit to health care to education to the economy  and redistricting reform.

That’s what the people of California expect and deserve.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 12:00 am and is filed under Blog Posts.