Two Weeks and Dozing...

As we sit less than two weeks away from the primary election, I feel a sense of apathy in the air. Not that congressional primary elections drum up the enthusiasm of a presidential race, but this election is particularly unexciting. Outside of the Republican eMeg – Poizner gubernatorial primary race and Sarah Palin endorsed Carly Fiorina in the Republican senatorial primary; there is absolutely no buzz at all.

We’re less than 14 days away from deciding two very important reform ballot measures and why I am yet to see one television commercial in favor of or opposing Proposition 14 or Proposition 15? The answer to that question is similar to how most questions get answered in the world of politics…money.

These two propositions have combined to raise barely $1 million. In a state like California, that kind of money won’t even get you a 30 second spot on the El Centro public access station at 2am. For a comparison, the two Republican gubernatorial candidates have raised upwards of $30 million and if you include the nearly $40 million that Meg Whitman has spent on her own campaign the total amount raised crosses the $70 million mark.

So what does that tell us about the prospects for reform? It screams pretty loudly that as pro-reform as the electorate claims to be, they are not putting their money where their mouth is. Nonetheless, when a relatively small portion of the electorate shows up on June 8th to vote for their preferred gubernatorial or senatorial candidate, they will find a couple of ballot propositions that may have some very important consequences for Californians.

Proposition 14 proposes moving to a Top-Two primary, which could dramatically alter the ideological make-up of the state legislature. Proposition 15 provides for public funding for the Secretary of State’s elections in 2014 and 2018. In and of itself that may seem fairly innocuous, but Prop 15 is really a test run for publicly funded elections for all of the state’s elected officials.

Two pretty big propositions if you ask me. It’s just a shame that most of California won’t have even heard of either policy choice until June 8th. And it’s even more of a shame that they will only have their gut reaction to the initial reading of the ballot title and description when they cast their votes.