A Modest Proposition

In this morning's round-up of Observer stories, I left out Matt Schuerman's piece on the strange, grim politics of Proposition 2, a transportation bond issue. In general, the two big propositions are both hugely important and very hard to cover, as they're fought out on the margins of people's consciousness. The process, though, doesn't inspire a lot of confidence in California-style referendum systems. The push for Proposition 2, for example, is being accomplished with taxpayer money in ads in subway cars and, it seems, as almost an afterthought on some of Mike's campaign literature. (He's clearly feeling confident enough to allow the distraction.) Meanwhile, half-a-million dollars worth of the support for Proposition One -- which would shift the balance of power in Albany toward the Legislature, appears to be coming as Cablevision's way of saying "thank you" for blocking the Jets Stadium.