Unz used California's liberal initiative process once before, in 1998, when he invested $752,000 of his own money in a $1.2 million campaign to end bilingual education programs in California. Passage of Proposition 227, English for the Children, by 61 percent -- following a campaign in which both political parties and all candidates for governor opposed the initiative -- raised Unz's political profile considerably and solidified his reputation as a maverick and a bit of a braggart. "Bilingual education has never worked in 30 years," he says evenly. "If I hadn't come along, it would still be there."Proposition 25 is partly motivated by Unz's experience in that campaign. In the final days before the election, Unz was nearly blindsided by a last-minute infusion of money used to flood the airwaves with hard-hitting television ads against his initiative. It wasn't until after the election that he discovered the effort was underwritten by A. Jerrold Perenchio, the conservative owner of the Spanish-language Univision TV network.
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/00/01/features-foster.php
If Mr 4%
12% in today's LAT poll. Arnold's down to 22% and sliding.