Prop. 4, one of the initiatives on the November ballot, would amend the California Constitution to prohibit a minor from getting an abortion until at least 48 hours after a physician has notified her parents or legal guardian. Advocates have contributed nearly $2.7 million to the campaign, but 93 percent of those contributions come from only five sources.
| Contributor | Contribution | % of Total Prop 4 Funding |
| James Holman | $1,527,590 | 57% |
| Don Sebastiani | $530,000 | 20% |
| Caster Family Trust | $100,000 | 4% |
| Lenawee Trust | $125,000 | 5% |
| Knights of Columbus | $200,000 | 7% |
| Total from these donors | $2,482,590 | 93% |
| Total overall | $2,657,622 | 100% |
James Holman, editor and publisher of the San Diego Reader, has contributed the most with about $1.5 million, though all of his contributions are classified as loans or non-monetary (meaning he’s paid directly for things like mailers and he’ll get the money back if the campaign end up with more money than it spent). Former Republican legislator and current wine producer Don Sebastiani contributed another half-million (he’s also donated money to the presidential campaigns of Ron Paul and John McCain). The other major donors are the Catholic group Knights of Columbus (based in Connecticut), the Caster family (owners of A-1 Self Storage) and the Lenawee Trust (Timothy R. Busch, an Orange County lawyer and founder of the religious-study think-tank, the Acton Institute is the trust’s beneficiary).
Without the top five, public contributions for this proposition would amount to just a few dollars over $124,000 from only 270 donors.
Prop. 4 follows 2006’s Prop. 85 and 2005’s Prop 73—both of which failed to get a majority of votes. Both 73 and 85 were mostly supported by Holman, Sebastiani and the Lewanee Family Trust. In all, Holman has spent more than $5.5 million, Sebastiani $1.3 million and the Lewanee Family Trust $200,000 over this four-year multi-proposition campaign. The Caster Family and the Knights of Columbus have only donated to Prop. 4, but have sunk more of their resources into Prop. 8 (the ballot measure seeking to ban gay marriage). The Casters have contributed more than $275,000 and the Knights of Columbus $1.25 million to Prop. 8.
