2nd Campaign Reform Plan Appears Headed for Ballot

Sponsors of a voter initiative aimed at taking the big bucks out of California political campaigns announced Friday that they have enough signatures to qualify the measure--the second such plan apparently heading for the November ballot.

Backers of what is called the Anti-Corruption Act of 1996 say they turned over more than 866,000 signatures to county election officials statewide, exceeding the 433,269 needed to certify the measure.

At the risk of confusing voters, however, the latest proposal calling for $100 contribution limits in legislative races would join the similar California Political Reform Initiative on the ballot.

Both proposals seek to stem the tide of political money pouring into candidates’ campaigns--a total that reached $196 million for statewide and legislative races in the 1994 election year, according to a study by California Common Cause. One or both of the proposed measures would cut that amount at least in half, according to proponents.

The difference between the two ballot measures is in the details. But the discrepancies were enough to wind up pitting normally allied public interest groups against each other in open campaign combat.

Ruth Holton, executive director of California Common Cause, a main backer of the more modest California Political Reform proposal, said Friday that the rival measure would never survive court challenges and, moreover, unfairly contains a “poison pill” clause seeking to nullify the Common Cause measure.

From the opposing side, Wendy Wendlandt, campaign coordinator for the other, more far-reaching proposal, said that Common Cause has been trying unsuccessfully for 20 years to bring about campaign reform and again is falling short of the tough crackdown required to get millions of special interest dollars out of campaigns.

“The public is fed up with governments by and for the wealthy,” said Wendlandt, who also is the political director of the California Public Interest Research Group, or CalPIRG, that measure’s chief supporter.

The main points of the public interest group’s measure include:

* Limiting contributions in local and legislative races to $100 per donor, and $200 in statewide races.

* Requiring 75% of all contributions from the candidate’s district.

* Placing mandatory limits on campaign spending, ranging from $75,000 in Assembly primary races to $5 million for the governorship.

The Common Cause measure, which has already been certified for the ballot and is also backed by the League of Women Voters and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., calls for:

* Contribution limits of $100 in local races, $250 in legislative races and $500 in statewide races. But for candidates who agree to voluntary spending limits, contribution limits would double.

* Voluntary spending limits ranging from $150,000 in Assembly primary campaigns to $8 million for general election gubernatorial races.