A Reason Behind Voter Apathy

Re the op-ed article, “The Public Pays the Price for Lax Campaign Finance Laws,” by former Republican Assemblyman Gil Ferguson on May 26:

Ferguson and I rarely agree on many matters, but his article was right on the money. A big part of voter apathy in this state has to be due to the perception by voters that our “public servants” are really “moneyed interest servants.” I think on this subject the voters are more enlightened than Ferguson thinks. They recognize bribery when they see it and they know that politicians aren’t going to reform themselves. They’ve had plenty of opportunities.

He’s right about the fact that the Legislature appears to be aiming to confuse voters by putting one or two initiatives on the November ballot designed to invalidate the Common Cause initiative.

They did the same thing back in 1988 to kill Proposition 68, the Common Cause/League of Women Voters-sponsored reform initiative, by putting Proposition 73 on the ballot. Yet another initiative (The Anti-Corruption Act) has also made it onto the November ballot with one provision that is blatantly in violation of the Supreme Court decision against mandatory campaign spending limits and another that contains a deliberate loophole for certain special interests. Voters are going to have to educate themselves about these confusing rival initiatives designed to kill the Common Cause/League of Women Voters-sponsored initiative. I hope The Times will publish an objective comparison in the weeks before the election.

The voters know what they want: a government composed of men and women who make decisions based on their perception of the facts and on the dictates of their consciences. Let’s hope they remember 1988. Politicians and their big-money allies are hoping they won’t.

DAVID PERLMAN

Laguna Beach