Crosby, Stills & Nash, Tom Morello join for anti-Prop. 32 concert

By Randy Lewis
September 24, 2012, 10:25 a.m.
Los Angeles Times

Veteran activist supergroup Crosby, Stills & Nash will team with muckraking musician Tom Morello for an Oct. 3 concert at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles to raise awareness and money to defeat Proposition 32, a campaign-finance measure on the November ballot.

Morello will open for CSN in an evening that will also feature actor Edward James Olmos in rallying opposition to the measure that is opposed by the League of Women Voters, the California Alliance for Retired Americans and a consortium of teachers, firefighters, nurses and other members of organized labor.

"This measure is not the campaign finance reform measure its proponents say it is," the California League of Women Voters states on its website. "Proposition 32 promises 'political reform' but is really designed by special interests to help themselves and harm their opponents. It looks like a campaign finance reform measure but unfairly targets one set of large campaign donors while giving other donors unlimited power. Its ban on payroll deductions for political giving will affect unions but not corporations, and even the restriction it places on contributions to candidates by corporations is full of loophole exemptions. It does not fix the problem of money in politics; Super PACs and independent expenditure committees will continue to spend without limitation."

In a statement issued Monday, Morello said: "Out-of-state corporations are using Prop. 32 to tilt the playing field even more in their direction and away from real people. This is about oil, tobacco, banking and insurance companies gaining the power necessary to re-write laws to fit their agenda … [of] more tax credits for shipping jobs overseas, weaker consumer protections and relaxing air quality laws.”

Collectively and individually, David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash have more than four decades of political activism behind them.

As lead guitarist for Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave and in his solo work as the Nightwatchman, Morello has been a prominent voice in the music community for social and political change. With System of a Down member Serj Tankian, Morello co-founded Axis for Justice, a nonprofit political activist organization.

The 7 p.m. concert will be preceded by a reception from 5 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.