California Proposition 64 (1986)

Proposition 64 was a proposition in the state of California on the November 4, 1986 ballot. It was an initiative statute that would have added Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) to the list of communicable diseases. The measure was defeated by a margin of 71% to 29%..

Activists associated with Lyndon LaRouche formed the "Prevent AIDS Now Initiative Committee" (PANIC) to place what became "Proposition 64" on the California state ballot. Proponents argued that the measures would merely return AIDS to the list of communicable diseases under the public health laws. LaRouche activists accused official agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control of "criminal malfeasance" for refusing to back measures such as mandatory testing.[1] Twenty years later, the CDC endorsed universal, but not mandatory, testing.[2]

Opponents characterized it as an effort to force HIV-positive individuals out of their jobs and into quarantine. Said Helen Miramontes, R.N., president of the California Nurses Association:

Health professionals believe that Proposition 64 would seriously hurt their ability to treat and find a cure for AIDS. Current medical efforts based on years of research will be undermined by the fear generated by this irrational proposition."

In 1988 the text of Proposition 64 was re-introduced in California by the "Prevent AIDS Now In California" (also PANIC) committee and appeared on the June 1988 ballot as "Proposition 69." It was also defeated.

A political consultant who was hired by the LaRouche organization to collect signatures for the PANIC initiative was convicted of fraud in October of 1988. The consultant, Stanley I. Dale, used out-of-state signature-collectors and claimed they were California residents.[3] Lyndon LaRouche was also convicted of fraud the same month in the unrelated United States v. LaRouche case.