(Chron) From Jerry Brown to George Deukmejian to Pete Wilson, Shultz noted, governors facing budget problems, skyrocketing taxes or failing schools -- and a recalcitrant Legislature -- have increasingly seized on the initiative process to dig out of trouble.

The result: "You have the state's chief political leader using the process to work his policy agenda -- and the unbelievable opportunity for special interests to control public policy," he said.

Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights in Santa Monica, is not surprised.

"People who advised Arnold Schwarzenegger to call a special election are the same people who will walk away with millions in fees," he said. "It's not exactly unbiased advice."[...]

"It's the battle for Middle Earth," said Beth Miller Malek, a partner in Wilson-Miller Communications Inc., a public-affairs consulting firm that's leading the charge for Californians to Stop Higher Taxes. The business-led effort is poised and ready to "push back hard" against at least nine initiatives -- many backed by unions and Democratic interests -- aimed at increasing corporate taxes, Malek said.

"It's the apocalypse of direct democracy," said Lewis Uhler of the National Tax-Limitation Committee, who is backing an initiative that would require public employees to give written consent before their union dues can be used for political purposes.

"(It's) a fund-raising bonanza fire, a political rampage fire," said Assemblyman Mark Leno of San Francisco.