Supporters of Proposition 5, whose heavy fundraising advantage has been whittled down, have cast foes as shills for the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. and its alleged effort to keep the state prison system overcrowded. The union has spent $1.8 million to fight the initiative reports the Los Angeles Times.
“Tell the prison guards the party’s over,” Proposition 5 supporters say in a television ad unveiled this week, telling viewers that correctional officers are “taking overtime pay right out of your pocket.”
Most of the measure’s financial backing has come from wealthy philanthropists in New York, including billionaire George Soros, a financier whose Open Society Institute has supported efforts to soften drug laws across the country. Of nearly $8 million raised by supporters, only about $350,000 has come from California donors, records show. Opponents have raised about $2.7 million but have won broad endorsements from elected and law enforcement officials.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, was the target of an aborted recall effort by the guards union and has criticized it as a special interest group. But he found himself on the union’s side Thursday when he joined former governors — Democrats Gray Davis and Jerry Brown, and Republicans Pete Wilson and George Deukmejian — to oppose Proposition 5.
“It is a great threat to our neighborhoods,” Schwarzenegger said at a news conference outside the Criminal Courts Building in downtown Los Angeles. “It was written by those who care more about the rights of criminals.”
Davis said the measure “will cost dollars and it will cost lives.” Proposition 5 would cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars a year initially, but a nonpartisan legislative analysis said it might save money in the long term by reducing prison overcrowding.
Read it here: Schwarzenegger stands with bipartisan coalition opposing Proposition 5