Judge Rejects Text of Measure Aimed Against Political Reform

The success of a ballot measure can depend on its precise language, and Long Beach City Council members eager to repeal a 1994 political reform measure thought they had a sure winner.

“Shall the ordinance which repeals taxpayer funded political campaigns be adopted?” read the title to Proposition R, which will appear on the June 2 ballot.

Because surveys show that taxpayer funded campaigns are unpopular, the authors were confident about their chances for victory.

But a Los Angeles Superior Court judge said Wednesday that the language was misleading and failed to tell the whole story. Judge David R. Yaffe said that only the city attorney could draft ballot language.

“What the majority of the City Council did was try to pull the wool over the eyes of the voters,” said Common Cause attorney Roy M. Ulrich. He argued the case with Carol A. Churchill of the League of Women Voters. “We think Proposition R is going backward, not forward.”

Fighting over wording of the ballot title may seem like splitting hairs, but advocates on both sides of the issue believe that language is crucial because many voters don’t read the voter guide mailed to them but rely instead on the brief summaries on the ballot.

Proposition R would roll back the political reform measure that made Long Beach the second city in the state, after Los Angeles, to provide candidates with matching funds.

That 1994 measure, called Proposition M, passed with 55% of the vote and put in place a complex system of contribution limits, voluntary spending ceilings and matching funds for candidates. The idea was to provide matching funds to help counter the advantage incumbents and wealthy candidates had in fund-raising.

As part of his ruling Wednesday, the judge ordered that the ballot pamphlet contain the entire existing ordinance showing all the parts that would be deleted or otherwise affected by Proposition R.

He also dictated a new title for the measure. Voters now will be asked, “Shall the Long Beach Campaign Reform Act be amended to eliminate provisions which make public matching funds available to qualified candidates.”

Long Beach City Councilman Jeff Kellogg, who wrote the original ballot language, disagreed with Yaffe.

“The judge is saying the same thing we said, he is just using more words,” Kellogg said. “The bottom line is you are taking taxpayer dollars for your personal political career.”