I was wrong about the California referendum: wrong, wrong, wrong.
I didn’t detect the strong movement against the governor’s reforms and I disbelieved the surveys, even one done by the reliable Field Research.
Don’t turn to me for an explanation when my predictions were wrong. Don’t trust people who made wrong predictions to explain what went wrong.
My best guess is that the zeal of moderate voters for reform, that was originally stimulated by Governor Davis’s meddling in the Republican primary and his failure to control the regulated utilities, has since dissolved back into the general morass of hating all politicians. (Dislike of unions got the most votes on yesterday's referendum.)