OVERSIGHT? OVER THEIR DEAD BODIES:

Stem Cell Spending Fight Builds: A state senator is seeking legislative oversight for the bond money approved by voters for research. The initiative's author opposes the idea. (Megan Garvey, December 7, 2004, LA Times)

Two of the leading backers of California's landmark embryonic stem cell initiative are already at odds over whether state legislators can oversee how the $3 billion in bond money is spent.

The long-simmering disagreement between State Sen. Deborah Ortiz — a key supporter of Proposition 71 — and the initiative's author, Bob Klein, intensified Monday when Ortiz introduced legislation to impose several rules on the agency that will govern stem cell spending.

Ortiz's proposal includes requirements that the state share in royalties from any discoveries and would place agency board members under the same ethical guidelines as state officials. [...]

Klein, a Palo Alto real estate developer who headed the multimillion-dollar campaign to pass the initiative, said such interference from politicians was exactly what he intended to prevent when he drew up the legislation.

Neat, in CA if you have enough money you can start your own private government through the initiative process? The Progressives must be thrilled with their democratic reforms.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 7, 2004 7:42 AM