PING
As a Republican State Senator and ASSemblyman, he has in the past been a fairly strong supporter of property rights and an opponent of previous efforts to establish this CONservancy! I believe he was instrumental in getting even Gray Davis to veto this insanity just a couple of years ago.
So I guess he just didn't have the backbone to stand up and buck it anymore with a seemingly fellow Republican Governor who campaigned on being a property rights Terminator, right on his website.
Everyone here saw that fact posted on several threads, but was so freaked out over a perceived possiblity of a Bustamonte win over a consistent Conservative that had previously won victories statewide. Oh well, I'm sure this will go far in solving the worst economic/fiscal crisis in California's history... NOT!!!
So here we are with an unprecedented Socialistic GANG-GREEN victory that ASSemblyman Leslie feels is a compromise, but still leaves the door wide open for the very kind of corruption and abuses that have been occuring with Barbara Striesand's Santa Monica Mountains CONservancy!!!
So we got our "half-a-loaf" Republican victory because we lost faith in conservatism in CA, that thrived for a decace from 1988 to 1998. Coastal CA now rules rural CA in a way that will lead to massive "Rural Cleansing" and everybody knows it!!!
The only remedy I see now is a fifty first state named "SIERRA REPUBLIC" that leaves the coastal CA counties as old "California!" We'll take the word "REPUBLIC" from their flag and let 'em stick "DEMOCRACY" on theirs as our new state will fight to overturn both the 17th Amendment and the "Cows Don't Vote" SCOTUS ruling of 45 years ago by the Warren Court.
It may take longer than I'll live, but as long as I live in CA, I'll persist in pushing for a state that is a Republic, and not a direct Democrazy!!!