As I reported in my column this week, Pacific Gas & Electric seems to be getting a little desperate as it feels the perhaps unexpected backlash over its heavy-handed attempt to subvert the initiative process by trying to pass a measure conceived, written, bought and paid for by itself expressly for the purpose of protecting its monopoly.

On Friday, the company kicked in another $6.5 million to the campaign, bringing its total costs to date to $44 million. Clearly, the company's internal polling must be showing that the initiative is in serious trouble. It could be that the cynical idea that they could promote this little deceit as "taxpayer's right to vote act" just isn't working out the way it had hoped.

California voters have a history of seeing through ballot measures that aren't what they seem. We'll see if another $6.5 million in deceptive advertising can change that.