We can never get everything we learn into a news story. "From the notebook" posts give you some of the extra details behind the news.
Our story in today's Bee looks at the latest polling on Proposition 32 by the Field Poll and the Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. The results showed 44 percent against, 38 percent for and 18 percent undecided.
But that wasn't the only survey on the state campaign finance reform measure released this week. On Wednesday the Public Policy Institute of California said that its most recent polling shows 49 percent of likely voters in the state said they will vote no on the measure. Of the other voters polled by the nonpartisan institute, 42 percent said that they will vote for the measure and 9 percent said they were undecided.
Another poll, conducted every two weeks by Pepperdine University and the California Business Roundtable found that support for the measure is slipping, but that only 37 percent of voters oppose it while 53 percent support it.
The Pepperdine poll gathers responses from an online survey.
Proposition 32 would ban unions, corporations, and government contractors from using payroll-deducted money for political purposes. Unions and corporations also wouldn't be allowed to contribute to candidates and their committees. Private contractors providing goods or services or negotiating for government business couldn't give money directly to elected officials or candidates.
The payroll-deduction provision would affect unions the most, because that is their sole source of political donations from their members. Business interests, including corporations, receive their campaign cash from company resources and executive contributions, revenue streams that are considered constitutionally-protected speech. Proposition 32 doesn't prohibit them.
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