Great news on the endorsements front. Congressman Tom McClintock is officially supporting the Citizen Power Campaign, and had this to say:

“The Citizen Power Initiative is absolutely necessary to bring real reform to Sacramento. People on both sides of the aisle know that public employee unions have too much power in Sacramento and stand in the way of real reform. They have that power because they have a special privilege no one else in politics has – the ability to automatically take money from their union members’ paychecks without their permission and use it for politics. This initiative will stop that automatic flow of money by simply taking the state out of the business of collecting political contributions on behalf of union bosses.”

Read the full press release here.

By Lewis K. Uhler - President of the National Tax Limitation Committee

Mon, January 11th, 2010

This sentiment, written over two centuries ago by Thomas Jefferson, is more applicable than ever today in the case of public -sector unions which collect mandatory dues from their membership to engage in liberal, big-spending, highly partisan politics antipathetical to many of their members who foot the bill.

In 2005 we spearheaded Proposition 75, the "Paycheck Protection Initiative," to require written consent of public employee union members before union dues could be taken from their salaries for political purposes. The unions outspent us 10-1 and only narrowly defeated Proposition 75.
In 2010 the outcome can be different -- for several reasons:

The "Paycheck Protection Initiative" currently gathering signatures is crafted differently. It prohibits the government employer (state or local) from acting as the agent for the public employee union in collecting political dues from public employees. I think it is stronger protection than Proposition 75.

During the intervening years public-employee unions have grown more arrogant and politically demanding and have taken positions on issues and ballot measures with which many of their own members disagree (such as the California Teachers Association's endorsement and funding of opposition to Proposition 8 -- the marriage initiative.)

Polling data reveals that public support for protecting public employees from forced union political dues has grown significantly since the Proposition 75 vote.

Larry Sand just sent me a blog post he made that has some good information on the history of paycheck protection and the lengths opponents will go to defeat such initiatives. (Pay particular attention to the analysis provided by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation.)

In January 2006, Mike Reitz, general counsel for Washington’s Evergreen Freedom Foundation, wrote an article called Paychecks Unprotected – Lessons Learned in California and Other States. He claims that, "Public sector unions are the 800 pound gorilla of California politics." (I think it’s safe to say that the gorilla has grown considerably in the last four years.)

The article spells out the extent to which unions will go to defeat a paycheck protection initiative. While the CPI is not exactly that kind of measure, its effect on the unions will be the same. As such, the unions will fight it doggedly and ruthlessly - using every penny that they can get their hands on. It would behoove anyone involved with this measure to read this piece.

This just in from the Poizner campaign:

POIZNER ENDORSES THE CITIZEN POWER INITIATIVE

Republican candidate for Governor Steve Poizner issued the following statement today announcing his endorsement of the Citizen Power Initiative, a ballot initiative which prohibits deducting earnings from public employees for political activities:

“The Citizen Power Initiative will help break the endless flow of money into the pockets of the special interest groups that have dominated influence in Sacramento and help put us in a budget crisis. Rank and file public employees in our state should not be forced to fund political machines, and I’m proud to be an active voice to help the Citizen Power Campaign stand up for Californians. I encourage all voters to support the Citizen Power Initiative and help get it on ballot this November.”

The official initiative title, as provided by the Attorney General, is "Makes Illegal the Use of Public Employee Wage Deductions for Political Activities." Read the summary here (scroll down to 1403) and full text here.