The State - News from Feb. 22, 1989

Assembly Republican leader Ross Johnson criticized Democratic legislative leaders for spending almost $75,000 in taxpayers’ money to attack Proposition 73, the voter-approved campaign financing reform initiative. “Powerful politicians have ignored the will of the people,” charged Johnson (R-La Habra), one of the main sponsors of the initiative. Johnson objected to the Assembly Rules Committee’s paying $29,400 in legal fees for a lawsuit filed last week with the state Supreme Court by Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco), Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) and several labor unions. The suit asks the court to throw out the entire ballot proposition on grounds that it violates the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Roberti said the issue needed to be litigated.