Quote of note

The initiative would set up a state drug-discount program for low-income residents and give pharmaceutical companies the option to participate. A competing measure, Proposition 79, would set up a more extensive program and give the state power to punish drug makers that don't join.

The trade organization spearheading the Proposition 78 campaign — with more than $80 million in funding from Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Pfizer Inc., GlaxoSmithKline and other drug companies — prefers to focus on what the measure offers

I wonder why... 

...skyrocketing drug costs, and a corresponding rise in industry profits, issues at the heart of the rival ballot initiatives.

Oh! That explains it... 

Prop. 78 May Suffer From Drug Makers' Poor Image
The industry is spending millions on the discount plan but a poll shows distrust of the backers.
By Lisa Girion
Times Staff Writer
September 30, 2005

Californians like the idea of a statewide drug-discount program for the poor: A recent Field Poll found Proposition 78 leading by a healthy margin.

But that support sagged when respondents learned that the nation's big drug makers were behind the initiative.

And therein lies the problem for supporters of the measure: Its biggest backer is also its biggest liability.

"Public opinion has a short list of bad guys, and the drug companies are on it," said Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College. "That can be hurtful to Proposition 78."