Nov 4 - LA Times: Fight to Repeal Bag Ban Akin to Fight Against Seatbelts
Fresh off new polling that reveals overwhelming support for CA’s new plastic bag ban among voters (see our recap here), David Lazarus at the LA Times is reporting on the big money tactics that the plastic bag industry is employing in order to overcome the lack of grassroots support.
And what are these tactics? Money (largely from out-of-state), certainly, but also a generous dose of misinformation. For instance, the party line from the plastic bag industry is that "it's fighting the good fight on behalf of personal freedom, individual liberty and common sense." But as Lazarus points out, the industry is just trying to protect profits, not unlike the auto industry’s efforts to protect profits by opposing such safety features as seat belts and air bags.
But the campaign to put the bag ban on the ballot isn’t stopping there. In a Craigslist ad spotted by Lazarus (here), the recruiter claims that signature gatherers can claim that the referendum is to vote on whether or not to ban plastic bags as opposed to repeal an existing law that has already been signed into law.
California voters want to ban plastic ban. And they already have. Join us as we fight this misinformative, out-of-state effort to thwart the democratic process.