Measure being distributed is worse than previous versions

by Brian Leubitz

Think back to the exciting days of the 2005 special election.  Calitics was just taking shape, and the Governor was pushing a series of right-wing reforms. One of these reforms, Prop 75, intended to block unions from using a members dues for political reasons without express permission every year. That one even got a critical editorial from the website of Reason Magazin. And back in 1998, voters rejected Prop 226 which did largely the same thing.

But it’s back again.  Unlike Democrats, Republicans have the resources and the wherewithal to fight these battles over and over again. After all, it only takes one victory, even if it is after 4 losses to come out the winner.  And the measure that is now circulating is a nasty bit of work:

A proposed initiative now in circulation called the Stop Special Interest Money Now Act by its supporters, would prohibit the use of payroll-deducted funds for political projects. It would still allow union members to voluntarily contribute money to political campaigns, if they authorized it in a written form to be submitted yearly.

Some four million unionized workers could be affected by this initiative. Corporations and contractors would also be affected by the new regulations, a key difference from earlier versions. However, the proposed initiative does go further, additionally preventing the unions and corporations themselves from contributing directly or indirectly to candidates and candidate- controlled committees.  (Capitol Weekly)

As noted, this one goes further than Prop 75 in two ways. It totally bans union (and corporate) contributions, but it also bans the use of any dues money at all for political contributions. Sure, you can give money to a PAC, but the soliciation of those funds would be difficult, if not impossible.  And the solicitation, even from willing members, would pretty much mean that the spending would be pretty small.

The ideal world of campaign finance would be a pure publicly funded campaign system.  But since we aren’t anywhere near there, this measure would just bring a sledgehammer to one part of the system and devastate Democratic funding for a generation.  When somebody asks you about signing a “workers protection act” be wary and step far away from that clipboard.