Pubdate: Oct 23, 1998 Source: Arizona Daily Star (AZ) Contact: http://www.azstarnet.com/ Author: Tony Davisand Joe Burchell MONEY POURS IN AS PROPOSITION BATTLES HEAT UP Backers of the Growing Smarter open-space buying plan have built up a $650,000 campaign war chest, far more than their opponents have raised. They join The People Have Spoken, with $1.7 million, and Arizonans for Clean Elections, with $805,000, as the most successful fund-raisers on behalf of ballot propositions. The People Have Spoken wants to repeal legislative changes to the medical marijuana law. The clean elections group wants public funding for political campaigns. The Preserve Arizona - Yes on 303 committee raised $532,000 through Oct. 14, while environmentalist opponents have raised $25,000, according to fund-raising reports released yesterday. Major donations for Growing Smarter: $25,000 each from Suncor Development, U S West Communications and Norwest Bank. Donations of $5,000 each came from Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Arizona, the Pederson Group Inc., Opus West Corp., Sunchase Holdings, Nathan and Associates and the law firm of Steve Betts, the real estate attorney who helped write the referendum proposal. Other large contributions, made after the report was filed, include $100,000 from the Homebuilders Association of Central Arizona, $25,000 from Wells Fargo Bank and $15,000 from an organization calling itself FINOVA. Growing Smarter's supporters have spent $456,000 on radio and TV ads in the Phoenix and Tucson areas and brochures for mailing. The Sierra Club has spent $20,000 on radio ads to fight the plan. The proposal calls for spending $220 million over 11 years to preserve state land. It would bar the state from requiring local governments to adopt growth management plans, impact fees and other growth control measures. The pro-303 campaign has targeted mailings for registered Democratic and Republican voters. The People Have Spoken was formed after the Legislature gutted the medical marijuana law approved by voters two years ago. The group is campaigning for votes against Propositions 300 and 301, which would overturn the legislative changes. They received only one contribution since their last financial report two weeks ago, but it was big enough to allow them to retain their position at the top of the fund-raising list for propositions. Peter B. Lewis, the head of Progressive Insurance in Cleveland, contributed $316,000, raising the group's total to $1.7 million. The Voter Protection Alliance, another committee concerned about the Legislature changing or overturning voter-approved propositions, also had only one big contributor. Peter Sperling gave $250,000. His father, John Sperling, previously donated $150,000, giving the group a total of $400,000. The Sperlings, who own 88 private colleges around the country including the University of Phoenix and Western International in Phoenix, are the only contributors to the alliance. The Voter Protection Alliance is campaigning against Proposition 104, which is a Legislative proposal to limit changes in voter-approved laws. They're supporting Proposition 105, which prohibits repeal of citizen-initiated laws and makes changing them extremely difficult. Arizonans for Clean Elections, which supports public funding for political campaigns in order to reduce the influence of big money interests, has been the beneficiary of several big contributions to raise more than $805,000. That total doesn't include $50,000 from the Peace Development fund of Amherst, Mass., which came after the close of the reporting period. Other big contributors during the last reporting period include $225,000 from the Public Campaign Action Fund in Washington, D.C., which already had given $95,000. The Proteus Fund of Amherst, Mass., gave another $40,000, to bring their total to $135,000. Arizonans for Fair Tax Reform, which supports Proposition 202, raised $100,000 from five contributors in Texas, Colorado and Florida, giving them a total of $353,000. Proposition 202 allows Arizona candidates to sign a pledge that they will support abolishing the Internal Revenue Service. Candidates who sign would have that noted next to their names on future ballots. Yahoo News has a list of news articles and related Web sites on all aspects of Arizona's elections. - --- Checked-by: Rolf Ernst