MONEY POURS IN AS PROPOSITION BATTLES HEAT UP

Backers of the Growing Smarter open-space buying plan have built up a
$650,000 campaign war chest, far more than their opponents have raised.

They join The People Have Spoken, with $1.7 million, and Arizonans for Clean
Elections, with $805,000, as the most successful fund-raisers on behalf of
ballot propositions.

The People Have Spoken wants to repeal legislative changes to the medical
marijuana law. The clean elections group wants public funding for political
campaigns.

The Preserve Arizona - Yes on 303 committee raised $532,000 through Oct. 14,
while environmentalist opponents have raised $25,000, according to
fund-raising reports released yesterday.

Major donations for Growing Smarter: $25,000 each from Suncor Development, U
S West Communications and Norwest Bank. Donations of $5,000 each came from
Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Arizona, the Pederson Group Inc., Opus West Corp.,
Sunchase Holdings, Nathan and Associates and the law firm of Steve Betts,
the real estate attorney who helped write the referendum proposal.

Other large contributions, made after the report was filed, include $100,000
from the Homebuilders Association of Central Arizona, $25,000 from Wells
Fargo Bank and $15,000 from an organization calling itself FINOVA.

Growing Smarter's supporters have spent $456,000 on radio and TV ads in the
Phoenix and Tucson areas and brochures for mailing. The Sierra Club has
spent $20,000 on radio ads to fight the plan.

The proposal calls for spending $220 million over 11 years to preserve state
land. It would bar the state from requiring local governments to adopt
growth management plans, impact fees and other growth control measures.

The pro-303 campaign has targeted mailings for registered Democratic and
Republican voters.

The People Have Spoken was formed after the Legislature gutted the medical
marijuana law approved by voters two years ago. The group is campaigning for
votes against Propositions 300 and 301, which would overturn the legislative
changes.

They received only one contribution since their last financial report two
weeks ago, but it was big enough to allow them to retain their position at
the top of the fund-raising list for propositions.

Peter B. Lewis, the head of Progressive Insurance in Cleveland, contributed
$316,000, raising the group's total to $1.7 million.

The Voter Protection Alliance, another committee concerned about the
Legislature changing or overturning voter-approved propositions, also had
only one big contributor.

Peter Sperling gave $250,000. His father, John Sperling, previously donated
$150,000, giving the group a total of $400,000.

The Sperlings, who own 88 private colleges around the country including the
University of Phoenix and Western International in Phoenix, are the only
contributors to the alliance.

The Voter Protection Alliance is campaigning against Proposition 104, which
is a Legislative proposal to limit changes in voter-approved laws. They're
supporting Proposition 105, which prohibits repeal of citizen-initiated laws
and makes changing them extremely difficult.

Arizonans for Clean Elections, which supports public funding for political
campaigns in order to reduce the influence of big money interests, has been
the beneficiary of several big contributions to raise more than $805,000.

That total doesn't include $50,000 from the Peace Development fund of
Amherst, Mass., which came after the close of the reporting period.

Other big contributors during the last reporting period include $225,000
from the Public Campaign Action Fund in Washington, D.C., which already had
given $95,000. The Proteus Fund of Amherst, Mass., gave another $40,000, to
bring their total to $135,000.

Arizonans for Fair Tax Reform, which supports Proposition 202, raised
$100,000 from five contributors in Texas, Colorado and Florida, giving them
a total of $353,000.

Proposition 202 allows Arizona candidates to sign a pledge that they will
support abolishing the Internal Revenue Service. Candidates who sign would
have that noted next to their names on future ballots.

Yahoo News has a list of news articles and related Web sites on all aspects
of Arizona's elections.

Checked-by: Rolf Ernst