Californians this summer will vote on whether lobbyists should be charged fees to pay for statewide elections.
And lobbyists are having none of it.
Several of those registered to lobby in California have filed a lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court seeking to stop the vote on a ballot measure scheduled for the June primary election.
The proposal - placed on the ballot by the state Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - would charge lobbyists, lobbyist employers and lobbying firms $700 each to pay for California's statewide secretary of state campaigns in 2014 and 2018.
Proponents of the measure argue that state politicians spend too much time raising money instead of governing, and that the fee would raise a collective $34 million to help candidates reject big money from special interests.
Lobbyists argue that such a fee unfairly restricts their right to free speech, as well as their constitutional right to petition government.
"Our view is that the First Amendment isn't up for election," Jackson Gualco, president of the lead plaintiff in the suit, the Institute of Governmental Advocates, told the Sacramento Bee.
