Wealthy attorney Molly Munger, who wants voters to raise income taxes for education and state budget relief in Proposition 38, has formed a new committee for the express purpose of critiquing rival tax initiative Proposition 30.
Munger contributed $3 million Monday to the new Committee to Defend Prop. 38 to fund a new round of statewide ads critical of Gov. Jerry Brown's initiative.
Prop. 38 spokesman Nathan Ballard said many members of its "big tent" coalition, including the California State PTA and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson, have either a neutral or support position on Brown's Prop. 30. Because of that, the coalition and Munger felt it best for her to open a separate committee to attack Brown's initiative.
Ballard blamed the Yes on 30 campaign for forcing Munger's hand by mistakenly claiming the governor's initiative would circumvent Sacramento. Yes on 30 proponents have grown nervous in recent days, as they say Munger is harming schools by going on the attack.
"We have two campaigns," Ballard said. "One is a coalition campaign that includes the PTA, and then we have a smaller committee that we deploy to make the ads like the one we did yesterday."
With $3 million in new money, Munger has now spent nearly $34 million on her initiative.
Update (12:05 p.m.): Munger filed committee paperwork last week to form the committee, but she did not contribute until Monday.
Latest posts:
About Comments
Reader comments on Sacbee.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Sacramento Bee. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.