As of Tuesday, supporters had raised $2.4 million while opponents had raised $25 million – about 10 times as much.
A list of supporters reads like the aisle of your local health food store: Eden Foods, Nature's Path, Amy's Kitchen, Lundberg Family Farms, Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps.
A list of opponents is like a stroll through Safeway or Walmart: Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Ocean Spray, Nestlé, Kellogg's, Hershey's, Sara Lee, General Mills.
Proposition 37 has also received substantial backing from Joseph Mercola, an osteopath who sells his own line of vitamins, household cleaners and organic personal care products.
The effort to kill the measure includes $13 million from companies that make pesticides and genetically modified seeds.
– Laurel Rosenhall
BILL WATCH
Legislation to create a state program that would sell license plates replicating those from decades past was sent on its way to the governor Thursday. Assembly Bill 1658 cleared its final legislative hurdle, 73-0, when the lower house approved Senate amendments. The measure, by Democratic Assemblyman Mike Gatto of Los Angeles, would produce replica plates from the 1950s, '60s and '80s.
– Jim Sanders
WORTH REPEATING
"Doing this bill so quickly emphasizes its flaws."
SEN. CHRISTINE KEHOE, D–San Diego, before she voted against Assemblyman Allan Mansoor's gut-and-amend proposal to exempt California athletes' Olympic medals and prizes from state income tax. The Senate Governance Committee OK'd Assembly Bill 1786 on a 5-1 vote Thursday after Mansoor said he would narrow its application to medals and official honorariums, not earnings from endorsements and other activities.
