Stop Special Interest
by Craig Alexander

Greetings fellow South County friends! As you know, 2012 is an important election year. Of course, the Presidential Primary and General Election are important. But in California we have an opportunity to end the union and corporate dominance over California politics from Sacramento to our own counties, cities and school districts. I would like to give you information about the Stop Special Interest Money Now Act Initiative so you can see why I believe passing it is vital to our state. Mark Bucher is chairman of the campaign to pass this initiative. Mark advised that the initiative qualified for the ballot on Dec. 6, 2011.

Let me begin by asking you some questions. 1) Who do you believe is the largest contributor to politics in California? 2) Are corporations always contributing to conservative politicians and causes? 3) In the last 10 years how much money has been spent by "special interests" in California? 4) Finally, doesn't a proposed law by an individual constituent have as much chance of being enacted as those sponsored by union bosses and corporate executives?

Answers: 

1. The largest contributor to politics in California during the last 10 years is the California Teachers Association, closely followed by another government employee union and the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers of America.
2. No - corporations contribute to their own interests as evidenced by their cooperation in the raising of taxes on all Californians in 2009.
3. Between 2000 and approximately 2009 the top 10 contributors to politics contributed just over $1 billion to state and local elections.
4. No - laws sponsored by special interests have a passage rate far greater than that of non-special interests (i.e., you and me). In fact, 40 percent of all legislation in Sacramento is written by special interests or their lobbyists.

What will the passage of the Stop Special Interest Money Now Act do? Right now, employee unions and corporations are allowed to involuntarily take money from their union members / corporate employees and place it directly into their Political Action Committee. Plus, they can contribute directly to politicians' campaigns. The passage of the Stop Special Interest initiative will change all that and level the playing field.

Specifically, the Stop Special Interest Money Now Act will:

1. Ban both corporate and labor union contributions directly to state and local candidates.
2. Prohibit government contractors from contributing to state and local officials who can award contracts to them.
3. Bar corporations, government employers and labor unions from collecting funds from employees by payroll deduction and using that money for politics.
4. Preserve every employee's right to contribute to campaigns by means other than payroll deduction (for example, by check or monthly debit from an account or credit card), but it ensures that those contributions are voluntarily authorized by the employee in writing annually.

Given the amount of money coming into politics from unions and corporations, and since this initiative will to a large extent limit the amount of money they can collect via involuntary payroll deductions, you can see how the passage of this initiative will break the control of unions and corporate special interests in Sacramento and in our cities, counties and school districts. 

The politicians will be forced to pay attention to and receive contributions from another group of people: their constituents the voters! You and me! 

For today, this is all I will write to you on this subject. I encourage you to find out more about this initiative before the unions and corporations begin their disinformation campaign about the initiative. You can obtain more information at http://stopspecialinterestmoney.org/

This initiative is so important that I have volunteered to be a guest speaker for the Stop Special Interest Money Now Act's Speaker's Bureau. So, if you have a group you would like to have someone speak about this important initiative, please contact me at cpalexander@cox.net or you may contact the Speaker's Bureau's manager, Elizabeth Hansell at lizhansell@gmail.com or 310-446-4800.