Money Can Buy the Outcome of Any Voter Initiative

Regarding “Companies Cheer State Voters’ New Attitude” (Nov. 7): Julie Pitta and James Flanigan are in a different universe if they believe that the outcome of the pro-business propositions was due to “a healthy level of sophistication.”

The majority of the voters in California were brainwashed by out-and-out lies about the effects of propositions such as 211, 213, 214 and 216, promoted by the tens of millions of dollars’ worth of advertising provided by pro-business and anti-consumer-rights organizations.

The only thing that can be said about the outcome of these initiatives is that enough money can buy the victory or defeat of any initiative under the California system. The way initiatives can be worded, along with the way advertising can misinterpret such wording, leads the voter to believe vastly divergent “facts” concerning such initiatives.

As a California voter for more than 25 years, I am absolutely disgusted at the initiative process that allows hustlers, for a fee, to “pimp” registered voters into signing petitions that neither the hustler nor the petition signer knows anything about and then allows the electorate to circumvent the duly elected state Legislature in carrying out its rightful duties and obligations.

PHILIP S. KAUFMAN

West Covina