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- Parte de Records of the Office of the Chief of Staff (Clinton Administration), Harold Ickes, Jr.'s Files
Extracted text
OCR Page 1 of 33tart
Culfume
security lan refun
with
July 9, 1996
MEMORANDUM FOR HAROLD ICKES
cc: Leon Panetta; Jack Quinn; Bruce Lindsey; Doug Sosnik;
Ray Martinez; Karen Hancox; Karen Skelton
FROM:
John Emerson for
SUBJ:
California Shareholder Litigation Initiative
Attached, per your request, is a memorandum summarizing the
California Shareholder Litigation Initiative, and a copy of the
Initiative. Essentially, the Initiative would dramatically and
substantially expand the cause of action for securities fraud in
California.
The Initiative is the brainchild of Bill Lerach, who has raised
several million dollars to promote it. California labor, seniors
and consumer groups, and trial lawyers are active supporters.
(Labor's interest is in combining resources with Lerach to
support the labor sponsored "livable wage initiative," which will
also be on the ballot.) Silicon Valley businesses, defense
lawyers, the "Big 6" accounting firms, and DLC friendly
Democratic state legislators are intensely opposed.
This weekend, the 375-member Executive Board of the California
Democratic Party (CDP) will vote on whether to endorse the
measure. If a majority vote to endorse, proponents can advertise
the "Democratic Party" endorsement, and a "yes" recommendation
will be included on any official CDP slate mailings.
Initiative opponents are lobbying hard for a vote of neutrality
at the E-Board. (An endorsement of the "no" position is not even
a remote possibility.) Despite their efforts, the CDP already
endorsed the Initiative "in principle" last February, and labor,
seniors and the trial lawyers hold great sway on the E-Board.
Accordingly, our California team believes that the resolution of
endorsement cannot be defeated without a forceful and potentially
bloody effort--and even then, the "yes" vote would probably
prevail. State Chair Art Torres, who has been under intense
pressure from both sides, indicated this afternoon that he will
not get in the way of a "yes" endorsement.
Recommendation: Unfortunately, less sophisticated opponents of
the Initiative may confuse the CDP endorsement with Presidential
support. Nevertheless, I am aware of no one who is familiar with
this issue. and has our interests at heart who believes we should
insert the President or the campaign into either the Initiative
itself or the CDP endorsement vote.
Our involvement, one way or the other, in the endorsement vote
would create bad feelings and would not likely change the result.