Saturday Politics: Brown Signs Bill Moving All Measures To November Ballots

This is huge news. No longer will conservatives be able to put crazy initiatives (or constitutional amendments) on the California ballot and hope that it appears on an election ballot which is particularly conservative.

Thanks to a bill signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown, all ballot measures will have to appear on the November general election ballot of the next even-numbered year (or special elections called by the legislature), not primary elections.

The Scaramento Bee reports:

Chuck Bell, a GOP attorney, submitted a request for title and summary for a referendum on the bill within hours of Brown's announcement. 

But the political implications of the measure may not have resonated outside Sacramento, even among Republicans. According to a recent Field Poll, registered Republicans support the proposed change by a 15-point margin, and 56 percent of voters overall favor it. 

After the poll was released, Brown said of Republican lawmakers' opposition, "I think they're a little out of touch with their own members, because obviously the Republicans seem to want that."
The bill is also controversial because it would delay until 2014 a "rainy-day fund" measure approved as part of a budget agreement last year. Republicans characterized the legislation as a take-back by Democrats.

The immediate impact on LGBT rights means that 1) the earliest Proposition 8 will be repealed is the 2014 gubernatorial election and 2) if the FAIR Education Act referendum people get enough signatures by their deadline of Wednesday October 12th, it will appear on the November 2012 ballot, not June.