Successful ballot initiatives in a few states could change the information environment for everyone.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who sponsored a successful ballot initiative on education, is once again making noises.
Many other states have seen successful ballot initiatives to ban gay marriage, and even civil unions, in their state constitutions.
A successful ballot requires a majority of parents at any private or state feeder primary which has sent at least five children to the school in the past three years.
In October, 2004, Connie Bruck reported on Proposition 71 in California, an ultimately successful ballot initiative authorizing the state to fund new embryonic stem-cell lines.
The decision removes a major obstacle for the campaign led by Ward Connerly, a businessman who championed a successful ballot initiative dismantling most affirmative action programs in California.
Last fall, forces of the religious right backed a successful ballot measure that overruled California's top court by banning same-sex marriage.
And if that was indeed a motive, it would suggest that a bandwagon has started to roll.The left's successful ballot was in stark contrast to the chaos on the right.
Tim Eyman, a chatty 36-year-old who makes a comfortable living selling engraved watches to college students, is the brains and the mouth behind a series of successful ballot initiatives.
The case involved the National Organization for Marriage, which spent more than $1.8 million in 2009 in a successful ballot effort to keep a Maine same-sex marriage law from going into effect.
A businessman and a former University of California regent, Mr. Connerly rose to fame in 1996 as the backer of a successful ballot initiative barring public institutions in California from taking race or gender into account.
