MORE ON: ballot measure

Multimillionaire activists, big labor unions and major corporations combined to pump more than $363 million into political fights over 11 propositions on Tuesday’s state ballot, a California Watch analysis shows. That’s about $20 in political spending for each of California’s... + read more

The beverage industry has spent nearly $2.5 million to crush a soda tax ballot measure in Richmond, records show, in a costly bid to keep the idea of taxing sugary drinks from spreading nationwide. “This is basically a battleground in a national debate," said Chuck Finnie, a... + read more

The Arizona group that dumped $11 million into California's ballot measure melee this week is led by a Republican activist who calls labor unions "the parasite that is killing our jobs." Robert Graham, a candidate for Arizona Republican Party chairman, heads Americans for... + read more

The top 10 donors to November's state ballot measures – a smattering of extremely wealthy people, powerful unions and large corporations – have dumped more than $150 million into the fight so far, according to campaign finance tracker MapLight.org. The mega-donors include... + read more

RICHMOND – Groups aligned with the soda industry already have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars as Richmond prepares to vote on raising taxes on sweetened drinks an extra penny an ounce. Since the spring, tax opponents have outspent supporters almost 10 to 1, new financial records show.... + read more

Last week, San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, his police chief, Greg Suhr, and his top political fundraiser, Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway, announced plans to develop a mobile phone application to make it possible for police officers to file reports from the field, allowing them to spend more time on... + read more

Out-of-state libertarians are trying to defeat a term limits measure on the June ballot, but so far, they haven't been able to match the financial heft of the coalition of unions and business interests backing it. Prop. 28 would tweak the current term limits regime by reducing the total... + read more