Campaign for dueling drug measures heats up

Thursday, September 15, 2005

The high-stakes battle over rival prescription drug measures on the November ballot shifted into high gear Wednesday as a coalition of consumer, senior and health groups kicked off the Yes on Proposition 79 campaign. For weeks, backers of the competing Proposition 78 have deluged television with advertisements. Backed by the pharmaceutical industry and other groups, Prop. 78 supporters have raised more than $75 million.

The Prop. 79 backers, standing on the steps of the state Capitol holding signs reading ‘Stop the Shakedown,’ acknowledged they can’t match these funds. But leaders promised a vigorous grassroots and Web-based drive. ‘We’re convinced that voters will respond to our grass-roots campaign and resist the drug companies’ attempt to buy this election,’ said Nan Brasner of the California Alliance of Retired Americans. ‘Californians have proven that they can look past the millions of dollars.’  …

The group backing Prop. 79 believes it can sway voters by getting the word out about its supporters, including the League of Women Voters, Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports magazine, the Gray Panthers, CalPIRG, and Health Access California, a coalition of 200 consumer groups.  …

What they lack in money, Prop. 79 backers say, they hope to make up in people power. They plan to conduct 100 town hall meetings with seniors throughout the state. The group will open a field office in West Hollywood today in a storefront donated by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

Consumers Union has begun reaching out to its database of 30,000 online consumer activists in California to enlist their support for Prop. 79. ‘We’re devoting a lot of staff time to this,’ said Consumers Union staff attorney Earl Lui. ‘We’re bringing people from our Yonkers office’ in New York.”