Bowen

California voters have a powerful tool, the ballot initiative, to make public policy. (Cal. Const., art. É, § 8, subd. (a) [“The initiative is the power of the electors to propose statutes and amendments to the Constitution and to adopt or reject them.”], art. IV, § 1 [“The legislative power of this State is vested in the California Legislature . . . but the people reserve to themselves the powers of initiative and referendum.”].)

Indeed, it was by a ballot initiative, Proposition 9, that voters adopted the Political Reform Act of 1974 (Gov. Code, § 81000 et seq.; Political Reform Act or Act) to address, among other things, potential abuse of the very process by which voters adopted Proposition 9. (Gov. Code, § 81000 et seq.; further section references are to the Government Code unless otherwise specified.) *

*115 The purposes to be accomplished by the Political Reform Act are set forth in section 81002, including subdivision (d), which provides: “The state ballot pamphlet should be converted into a useful document so that voters will not be entirely dependent on paid advertising for information regarding state measures.”

To this end, the Political Reform Act’s…