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Financier contributed nearly $50 mil of his own money to campaign. While the defeat of Proposition 87 disappointed folks like Robert Redford, Julia Roberts and Ben Affleck, it probably stung producer Steve Bing the most -- at least in terms of his wallet. A real estate heir who has put his money to work financing movies as well as political campaigns, Bing contributed nearly $50 million of his own money to the Yes on 87 campaign, supporting a California ballot initiative that would have taxed oil producers to raise $4 billion for alternative energy research. But after such an expensive...

The costliest ballot initiative campaign in California history ended Tuesday night with a measure that would have taxed state oil production to fund alternative energy research losing despite endorsements from celebrities and a former president. A majority of voters said no to Proposition 87 after a high-stakes race that pitted the specter of global warming against the threat of higher gas prices. Oil companies led by Chevron Corp. and Aera Energy raised nearly $100 million in their effort to defeat the measure. Supporters spent more than $57 million, most of it contributed by Hollywood producer Stephen Bing. "Proposition 87 was...

SACRAMENTO - State mishandling of voter-approved, tax-increase funds for a children's program has pumped powerful, 11th-hour ammunition into close, expensive battles over two similar cigarette and oil-tax boosting measures on Tuesday's ballot. After an audit revealed multimillion-dollar improprieties in the use of Proposition 10 preschool funding, foes of Props. 86 and 87 attacked the two new tax measures Wednesday as creating the same type of bureaucracies -- except with loopholes ripe for exploitation. "The audit confirms what many have been saying all along about tax initiatives creating reckless, out-of-control spending of tax dollars through unaccountable government agencies," said Larry McCarthy,...

Welcome to the live thread for the California Primary Election. Polls are open until 8pm tonight. If you are a registered voter, it is your duty to vote and defend your rights and civil liberties, protect your pocketbook, and vote the bums out where applicable. Feel free to discuss issues key to your local area that others may be interested in. Post your polling place experiences if you like. And post numbers as they come in later tonight.

SACRAMENTO - As seven-figure contributions continue to roll in, momentum has shifted against two high-profile, multimillion-dollar initiatives on Tuesday's ballot, according to a Field Poll released today. Once supportive, likely voters are now evenly split on Proposition 86, which would raise cigarette taxes to fund health programs, and leaning against Proposition 87, which would levy extraction fees on oil companies to pay for research into alternative energy. But the races are still too close to call before Tuesday. In California politics, initiative opponents tend to have a built-in advantage, because voting no preserves the status quo. That edge is only...

Imposing a tax on your competitors to fund yourself is among the many reasons why Prop. 87 is such a bad idea. HERE'S A STELLAR IDEA: Let's pass a tax on Internet companies to create a state fund that invests in worthy newspapers. That's basically akin to what alternative energy venture capitalists are proposing to do with Proposition 87 — tax your competitors (the oil industry) to fund yourself. Private capital is flooding into the alternative energy sector already, but you'd hardly know it from the glamorous Yes on 87 campaign. That's because the measure's backers appear to be managing...

After hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign advertising, voters are souring on initiatives that would enact new taxes on oil production and cigarettes, a new Field Poll has found. Californians surveyed last week and early this week were narrowly against Proposition 87, a tax on oil extraction to fund alternative energy. They were evenly split on Proposition 86, another measure on Tuesday's ballot, which would impose a new levy of $2.60 on each pack of cigarettes to pay for an array of health causes. Proposition 87 dropped four points in support from a poll taken at the end of...

Despite endorsements from Bill Clinton and Al Gore, support for Proposition 87, a measure that seeks to tax oil production to fund alternative fuel development, continues to wane, according to the latest Field Poll results to be released today. Both the Democratic former president and vice president in recent weeks have been front and center on behalf of the Yes on 87 campaign, being featured in television advertisements and leading rallies such as the one that Clinton appeared in at San Francisco's civic center on Wednesday. But the latest poll, taken between Oct. 23 and 30, shows 40 percent of...

Former President Clinton swooped into Northern California on Wednesday to raise campaign cash and rally support for Proposition 87 and a Democrat who is making an unexpectedly strong challenge to Republican Rep. Richard Pombo. Proposition 87 would raise $4 billion for research into alternative energy by taxing the oil pumped in California. Opponents, mostly oil companies, have raised more than $80 million to defeat it, while supporters have raised more than $50 million, making it the most expensive ballot fight in California history. "It looks to me that the opponents are spending $100 million dollars to swell the 'I don't...

Energy: Bill Clinton's back, now touting tax hikes for ethanol to California voters. "If Brazil can do it, so can we," he said, claiming an ethanol switch ended Brazil's need for foreign oil. Once again, he's telling whoppers. (snip) No, he smashed a champagne bottle on the spaceship-like deck of Brazil's vast P-50 oil rig in the Albacora Leste field in the deep blue Atlantic. Why? Brazil's oil independence had virtually nothing to do with its ethanol development. It came from drilling oil. Which is the very thing Clinton, in his Proposition 87 television ads, seeks to pile taxes on....

A dozen television and still cameras greeted actor Robert Redford when he went to a hilltop last week to declare his support for Proposition 87, the oil tax initiative on the Nov. 7 ballot. Even more cameras were in Malibu last weekend when Pierce Brosnan, Daryl Hannah, Halle Berry and other movie stars joined surfers in protesting a proposed offshore liquefied natural gas terminal. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a celebrity in his own right, is raking in campaign cash from the likes of movie director James Cameron, former co-star Danny DeVito and fellow action hero Sylvester Stallone. Hollywood, long a leading...

Just 13 years ago, Bill Clinton and Al Gore were exhibits 1 and 1A in the rise of the New Democrats – centrists who appreciated the need for a healthy economy and saw throwing taxpayers' money at a problem as both wasteful and a practice that would lead to voter distrust. And so we saw President Clinton defy the Democrats who then controlled Congress in submitting a first budget that was more concerned with fiscal rectitude than social engineering. And we saw Vice President Gore, in his finest moment in the public eye, demolish protectionist Ross Perot in a live...

The recent gasoline price spice and resulting record oil company profits generated an uncountable number of accusations of greed. The resentment stirred up has spawned Proposition 87, backed by a multimillion dollar promotional campaign, even as gas prices fall. Proposition 87 is being spun as a means to reduce oil consumption and stimulate the economy by creating alternative energy innovation. However, that is what it hopes to accomplish. Backers offer none of the necessary details to evaluate it or reasons to presume success. But it will inefficiently transfer resources from where consumers’ choices direct to where government bureaucrats dictate, and...

Former Vice President Al Gore appeared in Berkeley on Monday to lend his celebrity and reputation as a crusader against global warming to a measure on California's Nov. 7 ballot that would tax oil companies to raise $4 billion for green energy projects. ``I'm here to change peoples' minds on the climate crisis and to support Prop 87,'' Gore called to a group of reporters after he emerged from the ``100 miles per gallon'' Toyota Prius that brought him to a noontime rally in a sun-drenched park behind Berkeley's City Hall. His motorcade also included three motorcycles, two limousines and...

Proposition 87 is a foolish idea because it will increase the ratio of imported to domestic oil and the total amount of foreign oil we import ("Oil Giants Put Energy Into Other Resources," Oct. 8). Drive up Stocker Street in Windsor Hills, Freshman Drive in Culver City or Redondo Avenue in Long Beach and see a remarkable sight: oil wells. Unsightly they may be, but they have a hidden beauty, for they are neatly and quietly drawing from the earth a portion of the oil we Californians use every day. Proposition 87 would tax this oil produced by, for and...

Stars and politicians are battling big business in California's multi-million-dollar green crusadeIT IS a bitterly fought campaign that is pitting Hollywood against big oil; environmentalists against businessmen and millions of dollars against even more millions. As Americans prepare to vote in congressional elections, the most expensive campaign battle is taking place in California. But the nearly $110 million (£58 million) spent to date is not about a seat in Congress. It’s about oil. California has long been a pioneer state for environmental issues, so it was little surprise that it should come up with Proposition 87 — a tax on...

LOS ANGELES -- A little-known and rarely used California authority could soon be setting a $4 billion agenda to curb California's "addiction to oil." The California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority has been in existence for more than a quarter-century. But it has no staff and hasn't financed a project in 11 years. This bureaucratic backwater could become the largest state-run source of alternative energy financing in the nation, if voters approve Proposition 87, one of the hardest-fought initiatives on the Nov. 7 ballot. "Our president said that this is a nation addicted to oil, a nation that...

A $4 billion tax on oil companies would fund research into cleaner-burning fuels, reducing pollution and saving the lives of future California residents, supporters say. But what will happen to prices at the gas pump? That depends on whom you ask. Proposition 87 aims to reduce petroleum consumption by 25 percent over a little more than one decade. If approved by voters in November, the tax would pay for incentives encouraging the production and purchase of vehicles that run on alternative energy. Sixty percent of the state's air pollution woes can be blamed on moving vehicles that burn gasoline or...

Former President Clinton on Friday called the campaign against Proposition 87 a "ruse" and charged the oil companies with making "bogus" claims that the initiative would drive up gas prices. In a rare endorsement of a state ballot measure, the nation's former chief executive chided the oil companies that have pumped $64 million into the "No on 87" campaign. "If they really thought you were going to pay for this, would they have spent all that money trying to convince you to vote against it?" he asked students at a "Yes on 87" rally Friday. Introduced by Academy Award-winning actress...

Former President Bill Clinton was cheered Friday as he spoke to a university crowd in support of a California ballot measure that would tax oil to fund alternative energy research. Clinton called Proposition 87 "California's way to energy independence." The measure would tax companies drilling for oil in California until it has generated $4 billion. The money would be set aside for loans, grants and subsidies to promote alternative fuels and more energy-efficient vehicles. "To save the planet, improve our national security and create the next generation of good jobs for the American people - that's what Prop 87 represents...