By Ben Christopher, CalMatters 

CalMatters is an independent public interest journalism venture covering California state politics and government.

Photo:  Volunteer poll worker David Saunders helps a voter at a Los Angeles Elementary School polling place on Election Day. Early California results provided some answers but remaining questions. Photo by Tash Kimmell for CalMatters

November 7, 2020 (Sacramento) - California’s app-based corporate luminaries such as Uber and Lyft just waged the most expensive state ballot measure campaign in U.S. history—and it paid off big time, allowing those companies to thwart the will of all three branches of California government.