Misleading ‘voter guides’

With the June 7 primary election looming, local conservatives are condemning several “voter guides” as confusing and misleading.

Appearing as official Republican endorsements, mailers from the California Republican Taxpayer Association and Spirit of Democracy California promote conservative candidates in the national, state and local elections. But the taxpayer association isn’t recognized by any Republican entity in the state, said Darrel Wilson, treasurer for the Butte County Republican Party, and its website makes clear that clients pay to be featured in the guides.

“I don’t want anybody to think that the central committee has anything to do with paying for that,” he said. Spirit of Democracy is a political action committee funded almost entirely by wealthy Berkeley physicist Charles Munger Jr.