The late, great Hiram Johnson is best known as the California governor who brought forth the state’s renowned system of ballot initiatives.
Johnson is less remembered as a World War I–era isolationist U.S. senator who made this immortal declaration: “The first casualty when war comes is truth.”
Johnson’s historic dictum comes to mind as warring campaigns prepare to fling tens of millions of dollars in lying, deceitful, mendacious TV ads for and against a dozen election initiatives — a spectacle he would be shocked his great reform would spawn.