City Circus Update

During a countywide meeting last week, Tea Partiers emphasized the importance of supporting Prop 32 in the November election. California’s unions are worried about Prop 32, and they’re spending millions of dollars to oppose it.

Prop 32 addresses special interests' control of government and returns power to the voters by limiting both corporate and union political giving. Here is what it does:

1. Bans both corporate and union contributions to state and local candidates
2. Bans contributions by government contractors to the politicians who control contracts awarded to them
3. Bans automatic deductions by corporations, unions, and government of employees’ wages to be used for politics

Two weeks ago, the California Teachers Association/Issues PAC added $7.5 million to campaign against Prop 32. The California Labor Federation added $250,000. More than $18 million has been raised to oppose Prop 32.

Union tactics in local elections include smear campaigns. Costa Mesa Councilman Jim Righeimer, who has stood up to unions in his city’s negotiations, was targeted on Aug. 23. This blog published a report from a Costa Mesa resident, describing a union thug’s false report in a 911 call that Righeimer had staggered out of a bar and was driving erratically, http://www.missionviejoca.org/html/article130.html

In the Capo school district, the teachers’ union backed the recall of two reform-minded trustees and seated a majority of union supporters on the school board in the November 2010 election. The district went from a balanced budget at the time of the election to its current $50-million deficit. Services and programs have been slashed, and students face the prospect of 15 furlough days after the union-backed majority sold out during labor negotiations.

During the successful 2010 recall election in Mission Viejo, the OC deputies union kicked in more than $125,000 when it tried to keep a disturbed councilman in office. Lance MacLean lost his job at UCI after attempting to strangle a co-worker, and he covered up his history of domestic violence. By the eve of the election, the only campaign signs still standing were against the recall. Union signs were everywhere on the streets and public property – and notably in the yard of Wendy Bucknum. Not many Republicans want a union sign in their yard, but Bucknum is no ordinary Republican. She also was a leader in a smear campaign against Republicans who received the OC GOP endorsement in the November 2010 city election.

Bucknum, who works as a lobbyist, is a candidate for Mission Viejo City Council in the November election. She has the endorsement of some Republican elected officials who apparently aren’t paying attention.

Voters will have the opportunity in November to support Prop 32 and oppose candidates who aid and abet unions.