Chair of the Libertarian Party of California, Mimi Robson, wrote an op-ed published in the Fresno Bee last week.
In it, she explains how the LPCA submitted opposition statements to numerous tax and bond measures across the state, and was often the only argument submitted. Indeed, in Fresno, of the 12 measures on the November ballot (all for taxes or bonds, though we repeat ourselves), LPFC and LPCA jointly submitted arguments against 8, and 6 of them had no other arguments against submitted.
The reason only 8 out of 12 were opposed by the Libertarians is that the deadlines are haphazard, and four were missed. As you can see on the Fresno County Election website, measures B, D, G, and V had earlier deadlines, and none of them will have an opposition argument printed in the County Voter Guide.
Robson explains:
“The statutes regarding local measure elections apply to every county. How is it that every county, even Fresno, doesn’t follow every law, as written? Who benefits? Certainly not you.”
In Fresno County there will be 12 ballot measures put before the voters in November. California Elections Code section 9163 states in part, “Based on the time reasonably necessary to prepare and print the arguments . . . the county elections official shall fix and determine a reasonable date before the election after which no arguments for or against any county measure may be submitted.” So why is it that the posted argument deadlines for these 12 measures had varying dates ranging between July 18 and Aug. 29? And why was Measure C given the latest filing date for arguments?
Robson, M. (2022, September 13). Libertarians say Bee misstated their opposition to Measure C. Fresno Bee, The (CA) , p. 5A.
The Fresno Bee has not been accurate in its reporting on this, at times claiming that the Libertarians agreed with an anti-free speech argument, that we spammed the voter guides, that we asked to remove our argument against Measure C, and that voters will not see an argument against Measure C written by the “No on C” group.
We worked with the No on C group – in good faith – to print their argument as the rebuttal in the County Voter Guide. Voters will see both the Libertarian argument and the No on C arguments, and that’s much better than seeing no argument against the 20 year extension on this county-wide sales tax!