California unions hold power but face peril

Sacramento Bee ^ | 9/3/12 | Dan Walters

[SmithL]

Anyone who was paying attention to the California Legislature during the hectic final days of the 2012 session last week could see the political clout of the state's labor unions.

Countless union-backed bills whipped through the Capitol and onto Gov. Jerry Brown's desk. Although union lobbyists lost a few battles, they could count many more victories.

With the Legislature's Democratic majority utterly beholden to unions for political sustenance and with a governor, Jerry Brown, whose 2010 campaign relied on union financing, unions and their 2.4 million members are at the apogee of political influence.

Nevertheless, Labor Day 2012 also finds those unions facing a ballot measure that could erode their political influence as they face declining popularity and long-term membership shrinkage.

The ballot measure, Proposition 32, is the latest of several attempts by conservative groups to crack the unions' hegemony by prohibiting them from obtaining political funds from members via paycheck deductions without specific permission.

This version appears to be faring better than its predecessors because its sponsors adopted a sleight-of-hand political tactic that the unions themselves have employed in the past – wrapping something attractive to voters around something controversial.

[2banana]

Funny how in states where unions are at the apogee of their political influence, the states they are in are BROKE. California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, etc.

Jerry Brown, whose 2010 campaign relied on union financing, unions and their 2.4 million members are at the apogee of political influence.

[GeronL]

No power to change reality?

[Eric Blair 2084]

Math is a horrible peril.

[fifedom]

The unions and their cronies are pulling out all stops to defeat Prop. 32. The yes side will be outspent by a huge factor. I started hearing anti-32 ads on the radio in mid August. So far nothing on the yes side.

The unions are even using money from the CA government employees' retirement funds to fight the proposition. They got one of their cronies to "donate" $500K to the yes side after giving his investment company a contract to manage some of the CALPERS funds.

http://blogs.sacbee.com/the_state_worker/2012/08/hedge-fund-manager-donates-500000-to-defeat-prop-32.html

[nascarnation]

I assume the Cali Dems plan on federally guaranteed state bonds in a second Obama term. If that doesn’t happen, and Romney has some b@lls, they could really feel the squeeze.