AGENDA 21 RADIO

BY CHRISS STREET, NEWPORT BEACH, CA

The Cal 3 Initiative hired Gunster Strategies Worldwide that managed the successful Brexit campaign to work on the November ballot vote to work on the campaign to split California into three states.

The Sacramento Bee discovered that Cal 3’s first Fair Political Practices Campaign (FPPC) disclosed in the Public Expenditure Tracking payments section that Gunster Strategies Worldwide (GSW) was one of its first 3 major vendors that began work in 2017 with the goal of qualifying the initiative for the November 2018 ballot.

Headquartered in Washington DC and with offices in London and Cairo, GSW advertises that it is an “issue advocacy, branding and ballot measure campaigns with an industry-leading 9 out of 10 win rate.”

The company claims it success rate is based its ability to gain public trust by understanding what entices different demographic populations and then telling stories that trigger emotional connections and inspire action for its clients.

“New California spent $13,000 since November 2017 and is closer to statehood than Draper who spent $5 million”….

Paul Preston

Silicon Valley venture capitalist Tim Draper spent $5.27 million in 2013 and still failed to gained enough registered voter signatures to get his “Six Californias” initiative to break up the Golden State into six states on the ballot.

But like the typical VC investor that learns lessons from his mistakes and continues trying until he win, Draper easily qualified his Cal 3 initiative for the November 2018 ballot for just $558,985.77 as of July 5, 2018, according to Ballotpedia.

It is unclear what GSW’s role will be in the run-up to the November vote. The only FPPC filing so far regarding the effort has been for Tim Draper, who personally funded the signature drive. But Citizens for Cal 3 campaign finance committee that is handling the general election has yet filed any spending reports, accordingto the Sacramento Bee.

California’s former Democrat Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez told the Los Angeles Times when Cal3 qualified for the November ballot, “We shouldn’t be wasting time with this.” Most California establishment politicians took comfort in a mid-May Survey USA poll that forecast 17 percent support for Cal 3 and 72 percent opposition.

But GSW was masterful at managing low-expectations for the “Brexit” campaign for the United Kingdom to exit the European Union. On Election Day, June 23, 2016, all major English polls claimed Brexit was losing and the “Remain” campaign was ahead by up to 10 percent. Despite London’s Independent newspaper headline claiming Remain had the winning edge, Brexit passed with 51.9 percent of the vote on a huge 71.8 percent turnout.

CEO Gerry Gunster told the Campaign & Elections website in May that ballot initiatives are “extremely high stakes vehicles that are mechanisms to prompt dramatic change.” He sees ballot initiatives as an “inherently grassroots tool” that responds to the growth of grassroots numbers and power. Gunster adds that one advantage for a ballot initiative is that it provides a unique public stamp of approval that rarely can be reversed.