What: Celebration of the 100th Anniversary of the Initiative Process. Candles will be blown out and cake will be shared with people participating in Occupy LA.
Who: Harvey Rosenfield, Consumer Watchdog Founder and Prop 103 Author; and Jamie Court, Consumer Watchdog President and Author of “The Progressive’s Guide to Raising Hell”
Where: South Steps of Los Angeles City Hall
200 N. Spring Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
When: Thursday, October 13th @11AM Pacific
Consumer Watchdog, whose founder wrote the insurance reform initiative that saved drivers $62 billion, will celebrate the 100th birthday of the California ballot initiative process by lighting and serving a giant birthday cake with 100 candles at Occupy LA on the South Steps of Los Angeles City Hall on Thursday. The nonprofit, nonpartisan group says that the initiative process is an essential tool for 99% of the people to protect themselves from the 1% who wield power in the Capitol.
Consumer Watchdog has spent twenty years enforcing the populist 1988 insurance reform initiative Proposition 103, which the Consumer Federation of America reports has saved California motorists over $62 billion. The group is drafting a proposal for 2012 to regulate health insurance premiums and create an option for Californians to get health coverage through a public plan.
Consumer Watchdog has also been fighting a series of high-priced initiative proposals by Mercury Insurance to repeal provisions of Proposition 103. Voters rejected Mercury’s 2010 initiative, proposition 17, but Mercury Chairman George Joseph has recently spent $8 million towards a potential November 2012 initiative attacking Prop 103.
On October 10, 1911 a special election called by Governor Hiram Johnson established the initiative process by a margin of 168,744 in favor to 52,093 against for Senate Constitutional Amendment SCA 22. 100 years later, the initiative process is still alive and strong in California. Consumer Watchdog will celebrate the initiative process with a birthday cake and will call on Californians to defend the initiative process from corporate efforts to take control of the crucial tool for citizens.
