Junius Brutus Stearns painting
Alas, the equivalent of this constitutional convention will not be coming here.
Let’s count the most appealing aspects of California state government. There are so many.
There is the perennial budget crisis, the antics of some lawmakers and the sway of the moneyed interests, not to mention the fundraising frenzies, the perpetual campaigns and the initiative wars.
Our state government is damaged, and it must be fixed if California is to thrive. That makes all the more troubling the apparent failure of two efforts that held out some promise of some change for the better.
A group called Repair California, backing initiatives calling for a California constitutional convention, has given up placing its measures on the 2010 general election ballot. A second group, California Forward, advocated a more modest overhaul of the state budget system. That, too, is on life-support.
People involved were well-intentioned and seemingly well-grounded in their understanding of California politics. Certainly, with institutions such as the Bay Area Council and individuals such as former Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg involved, there was no lack of statewide campaign experience.
With each passing day, however, chances diminish that either group will be able to raise enough money to gather the millions of signatures needed to place the measures on the November ballot. That doesn’t mean that either is dead.
The Legislature could place the budget overhaul on the ballot. Perhaps candidates for state office would see some benefit to embracing true change, although that probably would not be a part of their consultants’ playbooks.
There’s still time, albeit measured in hours, for angels to shower down the millions it would take to place them on the ballot, either in 2010 or in a special election in 2011. The ideas could be retooled and reemerge on some future ballot.
But 2010 seems to be a year when the electorate will be most ready for change. Voters are unsettled and angry, rightly so. Unemployment is at 12.4 percent. The state, while not insolvent, is acting as if it were, and legislators are at loggerheads.
Ready or not, change does not seem to be headed to a ballot anytime soon.
Our movie-star governor came into office promising big change but has squandered the opportunities he once enjoyed to bring about significant reform.
The initiatives to overhaul the budget and create a constitutional convention were far from perfect. Despite claims by backers, there were doubts that a constitutional convention could be strictly limited to matters of governance.
The budget proposal is, if anything, too modest.
But that’s not why they faltered.
They faltered because reform is hard. It needs both broad-based grass-roots support and deep-pocketed benefactors. It needs people who care about the state’s broader interests, not just narrow ones such as preschool education, protecting Proposition 13 or passing water bonds.
In November, voters can look forward to the same tired batch of ballot measures masquerading as reform but limited in their ambitions. They will prove, once again, that much stronger and credible medicine is needed.