irst, an apology or correction. I had stated in a recent journal that this untimely California election was costing in excess of $100,000,000. Wrong, Jackson, according to Rob Reiner (who will/or will not seek the governorship himself), the price we pay is around $250,000,000. That could be an exaggeration. All eight of the propositions on the ballot were put there by initiative petitions circulated by paid signature gatherers. Schwarzenegger called the special election this year even though all the proposed reforms could well have waited until our regular primary election this coming June. If his reasoning was to give his 2006 gubernatorial campaign a springboard, he may have erred. Since his campaigning began his popularity has declined precipitously to an approval rating of about 33%. Our Governor has already asserted that there will be more ballot measures next year regardless of the outcome of this current batch.
Will you be voting? I shall, and the basic reason for my doing so is simply that if we don't, then we are leaving government to the special interests that finance these initiatives. There's an editorial line in the Los Angeles Times, under the headline "Hold your nose and vote", that sums it up succinctly, "About the best thing to be said about this year's special election is that it will soon be over. No one will really win, except for the political consultants who will walk away with pockets full of cash for raising and spending more than $200 million of other people's money, and no one will really lose". Sad, but true.

For those who read this far removed from California let me say that the most covered personalities this weekend were Prince Charles and his wife Camilla. They were received in a far more friendly atmosphere in Northern California as they sampled organic foods, (he being an organic farmer), than was Arnold Schwarzenegger (without the accompaniment of his Democrat wife, Maria Shriver). Poor Arnold spent much of the weekend hounded by noisy union protesters rallying behind Warren Beatty their celebrity ally, who was accompanied by his wife; Annette Benning.