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donnay
10-23-2014, 09:23 AM
Corporate giants funding state ballot initiatives

By PHILIP ELLIOTT
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Voters may not know it, but the millions of dollars paying for ads on ballot measures they will consider next month come from large companies and national advocacy groups.

Many of the messages are tailored to defend or expand the business interests of companies such as Coca-Cola, Monsanto and ExxonMobil, yet few have their names in the ads.

For example, $6.4 million in ads funded by Coloradans for Better Schools is backed by the Rhode Island-based Twin Rivers Casino in favor of a ballot initiative that would expand gambling to horse tracks. Opponents, calling themselves Don't Turn Racetracks Into Casinos, are backed by a group of Colorado casinos and are helping fund $5.7 million in ads to defend their turf.

Through Oct. 20, TV ad spending on ballot issues totaled roughly $119 million, according to an analysis conducted by the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity, based on preliminary data from media tracking service Kantar Media/CMAG. Four of the five most expensive ballot initiatives - a process designed to give voters a direct say over public policy - feature at least one corporate patron.

Voters may not readily identify the patrons behind the hundreds of millions of dollars in ads using family farmers, concerned doctors and smiling teachers as spokespeople, as the corporations set up outside groups with nondescript names to handle the political ads.

For instance, food industry giants Monsanto, the J.M. Smucker Co., Coca-Cola and Pepsi are spending $3 million opposing an Oregon ballot measure that would require vendors to label genetically modified foods. Voters see the ad spending labeled as being from the No on 92 Coalition. Natural food companies are spending $2.1 million on ads to support the effort through a group called Vote Yes on Measure 92.

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