The California Initiative

The California Initiative is a fast-paced political thriller set in a time when America is suffering through its worst economic depression since the 1930's. Ewald Zimmerman, a prosperous furniture maker living in California, has lost patience with the federal government to adopt the policies he believes will ease the country's suffering. He knows he must make a radical suggestion to draw the media's attention. He draws up a petition asking for a voter imitative to be put on the ballot. It proposes that California secede from the union if the government refuses to take action to end the depression. Enough voters sign his petition to put his initiative put on the ballot. His intention is to spur the federal government into action, but his protest creates a firestorm. Large numbers of disaffected people take up his cry for action and flock to the political party he forms. Other, more radical parties in other sections of the country benefit from the movement he started. The general dissatisfaction with the state of the country reaches a point where the breakup of the union becomes a real possibility. Alarmed by the forces he helped unleash, Zimmerman decides to fight to keep the union together. To defeat those who want to see the country torn apart, he must work his way through a minefield a special interest groups, fend off the dirty tricks of the political establishment and outwit the two enemies who have sworn to destroy him.