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A gambling initiative sponsored by California horse-racing tracks is expected to be cleared for circulation today, and it seems destined to become one of the major players in one of the most crowded fields of initiatives in years.
The racetrack initiative brings to 27 the number qualified for circulation, with 25 more pending review by the Attorney General's Office. While many are pie-in-sky ideas without sufficient funding, there are a bundle of petitions that have significant money behind them. Among the monied sponsors pushing intitiatives for the November ballot: the Agua Caliente tribe that operates two large casinos in Palm Springs, the state Chamber of Commerce, the California Teachers Association and actor-producer Rob Reiner, the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties, and a good-government group headed by millionaire politicians Steve Westly and Richard Riordan.
It all adds up to a scenario under which signature-gatherers might be demanding as much as $3 a signature by spring, said Fred Kimball of Kimball Petition Management in Westlake Village.
Kimball, who's been in the business more than 30 years, has this advice for initiative-backers: Get out there early and try to wrap things up before March 1. After that, the push will be on to qualify two gambling initiatives and a workers' compensation reform measure by mid-April, in time to be on the November ballot.
"The shorter the time frame, the higher the price," Kimball said. "You can assume that only three or four will be around later... Anything after that will be noise."
