Prop A, the proposed sales tax increase for Los Angeles (which was grossly mislabeled as a public safety measure to con voters into approving it), lost by over 10 points in preliminary final results released late last night.
This saved the people of Los Angeles from not just having the highest income tax rate in the country (a distinction we share with everyone else in California) - but from also paying the highest sales tax rate of any major city in the country - joining that paragon of civic virtue - Chicago.
The stunning landslide loss occurred despite over a million dollars being spent by special interest groups to convince the voters that life as we know it would cease to exist unless we passed it - and it happened just 3 days after a USC Price /LA Times poll showed Prop A winning by a huge 13 point margin (53.4 to 40.6) . Now that poll did have a stated margin of error - 4.4 points, but the true error turned out to be just a little bit higher.... about 23 points higher.
So why the huge loss? Well, not only did the LA Times and the Daily News strongly recommend a no vote, but so did all five major candidates running for Mayor.
And then there was the massive opposition campaign - which was essentially one man - Jack Humpreville, a neighborhood council oriented news blog run by Ken Draper - CityWatch and Jack's facebook page.
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