Oaks Project Opinion Editorial By Jeff Christopherson

Ventura County Star

They are pulling our strings again and most of us haven’t a clue, but we could find one if we look back at the last election.

This time, big insurance interests have spent millions of dollars to get an initiative on the ballot, and are spending millions more to convince us to vote against it. That’s right, they want us to vote No on their own initiative. Sound confusing?

It is Proposition 30, and it is so twisted that if it fails, it will undo a law already on the books that forces insurers to pay their fair share. They have written Proposition 30 with this flipped logic because they know all too well that when the voters are unsure, they vote No, in this case casting a vote against themselves.

You see, insurers have a nasty habit of “low-balling” crash victims by paying much less than the actual damages, in some cases less than 50 percent. We had no right to go after them until last year when a bill sponsored by The Oaks Project was signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis, restoring our right to go after insurers if they low-ball us.

Well, the last thing an insurance company wants is empowered citizens, so they are trying to trick us into overturning this law for them, with a backward initiative and millions of dollars in advertisements blaming the lawyers for the whole thing.

In short, the thieves are asking us if we want to keep our burglary laws. Yes or No.

Sound unbelievable? It’s nothing new. Last election, another piece of Oaks Project legislation was murdered by $40 million in false advertising. It was Proposition 9 and its defeat will cost Californians an extra $26 billion by the time it’s all over. The lies worked then and they can work now, if the truth doesn’t get around.

Welcome to big-money politics. Write the initiative, buy the signatures, buy the media so you can monopolize your point of view, and you’ve bought the election — legally. The truth be damned, and the people damned alongside it.

These are the times we are living in, and they are dark indeed.

So what can you do about it? Get involved. It is so far gone that you simply must get involved. To quote Benjamin Franklin, when asked what our new country would be, he said, “A republic, if you can keep it.” Well, we’re losing it, and we won’t get it back by sitting on the couch.

And to start yourself off right, vote Yes on 30. It will show them that we are aware, and we remember, which is sure to scare the hell out of them.