PPIC Poll: No on Prop 6 Only has Slim Lead Despite “Hostile” Ballot Title

The No campaign for the gas tax repeal only has a slim lead despite what the San Francisco Chronicle deemed “a hostile official ballot title.”

Breitbart News reported just over a year ago that a Sacramento judge had thrown out and was rewriting an earlier gas tax repeal effort led by State Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-Huntington Beach). The judge called Becerra’s referendum description, “Eliminates recently enacted road repair and transportation funding by repealing revenues dedicated for those purposes,” as absurd without mentioning the words “tax” or “fee.”

After that effort failed, California Reform and the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers’ Association (HJTA) successfully distributed another gas tax repeal initiative that qualified for the November ballot as ‘Prop 6’ with almost twice the required 580,000 signatures.

But Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office gave the new gas tax repeal the official ballot title: ‘Proposition 006 – Eliminates Certain Road Repair And Transportation Funding. Requires Certain Fuel Taxes And Vehicle Fees Be Approved By The Electorate. Initiative Constitutional Amendment’

HJTA President Jon Coupal told Breitbart News that the Proposition 6 title was, “Fake News,” because it again never mentions the words “tax” or “fee.”

But Coupal is cautiously optimistic after the September 27 release of the latest California Public Policy Institute poll. Despite the confusing title and the ‘No on Prop 6’ campaign having already dumped $10 million mostly on negative advertising, PPIC stated that only “a slim majority of likely voters oppose Proposition 6.”

Although the PPIC poll found that 39 percent of all registered voters favor Prop 6 and 52 percent oppose, Coupal points out that the Yes campaign had not released any advertising to counter the confusing ballot title. He added that non-presidential year elections tend to have low overall voter turnout and favor more motivated conservatives.

Coupal said it is telling that the Yes campaign disadvantage for all voters in California’s liberal bastions of Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area is only about 7 percent, versus 13 percent statewide.

Both the HJTA and California Reform have been raising money and avoiding the temptation to waste cash on advertising too far ahead of the election. HJTA announced on October 1 that it would begin its radio advertising this weekend.

Reform California Chairman Carl De Maio told Breitbart News that his organization is timing the launch a heavy online and direct mail advertising campaign until October 9, when the California Secretary of State sends out the first tranche of vote by mail ballots.