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.
 

Thanks to John Stossel for posting this endorsement of the Citizen Power Initiative! Here s an excerpt...

Normally only a tiny fraction of Americans choose to donate to candidates or political causes. Yet many government employee unions enjoy the power to compel virtually all of their members into supporting the unions’ advocacy, regardless of how the individual worker feels about that agenda.

Some members are fighting back. They propose a state-wide vote on what they call "paycheck protection."

California proponents of paycheck protection have begun circulating a ballot measure that if passed would get the state out of the business of collecting political cash for its government employee union officials. Political participation would once again become voluntary ...

The initiative is being called the “Citizen Power Initiative.” More information and petitions are available here.

I hope it passes. Whether you want to support a candidate or a political party should be your decision. Union bosses shouldn’t get to force you to give money to causes you may hate.

Read the full article here.

Mr. Brown actually admits that politicians set up the civil service system as a part of the “spoils of war”. They had a place to employee their friends and relatives which basically made it impossible for the next guy elected to get rid of these people. I’m not saying every public employee is a friend of an elected official but it does beg the question of the ever expanding administration of government under the most dire of economic situations in California.

What is completely fascinating is that Willie Brown actually admits that it was the “labor unions” along with our legislators that set up this system of inequity with public employee jobs. After all public employee jobs pay much better than their private sector counterparts and they have job security. Who could argue with that right? Well it is all funded by us, the taxpayers!  So we are arguing that not only is the system rigged but it remains that way due to the unyielding influence labor unions have over our whole political process. 

This brings us to our initiative and why we are fighting so hard to get it qualified. It means for the first time we have decided that the system “as is” should no longer be! The people are speaking, and their voices are rising up!

If you would like to read more about Willie Brown’s surprising confession of sorts click here

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Thanks to the Americans For Tax Reform for posting this blog supporting the Citizen Power Initiative over on RedCounty.com.

California Revisits Paycheck Protection: the Right Battle at a Crucial Time

Earlier this week, Tom Campbell became the first gubernatorial candidate to endorse the Citizen Power Initiative. As he states in this press release:

"...Sacramento is broken -- dominated by a political machine where the public employee unions have excessive power in influencing legislation and budgets. I saw how they worked to defeat the budget-balancing initiative in 2005, and funneled millions of state employees’ dollars into attacking the best hope we had to prevent the budget melt down we are now suffering. If state employees want to make political contributions, that’s their right, but their unions should not be able to make that decision for them without their explicit approval."

Read full press release.

U.S. Senate Candidate Chuck DeVore is the first California legislator to officially endorse the Citizen Power Initiative!

Read the full press release

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A few days ago, Dan Walters wrote an article about how labor exerts their control of Sacramento by threatening business groups that support initiatives they don’t like.

Now Eric Christen, Executive Director of the Coalition for Fair Employment in Construction, a group that fights Project Labor Agreements, has exposed the email below from Lorena Gonzalez, CEO of the San Diego-Imperial Counties Labor Council, blackballing a local signature gathering firm for collecting signatures on a petition that they are opposed to.   

Subj: Bobby Glaser to be placed on Labor s Do Not Patronize List

Bobby Glaser is going to have the unique distinction of being the first consultant to be placed on our official do not patronize list. Although the vote has not taken place yet, I anticipate it to be final by the first week in December.  I just wanted to alert people involved in any potential elections for 2010 that may want Labor s support.

In solidarity,
Lorena Gonzalez

Notice particularly the threat in the last line – she will cut off the money she controls from anyone who uses a vendor on the “Do Not Patronize List.”

Unions did not exist when Seneca said, “To greed, all nature is insufficient.” But I bet they were what he had in mind!