Politics: Pete Wilson's Moment
Norquist, Grover G.
POLITICS by Grover G. Norquist Pete Wilson's Moment G overnor Pete Wilson of California has decided to change the world: In September he put his personal and political prestige on the line by...
...Hayek and Bruno Leoni, emphasized in their legal thought that polycentric and evolutionary law, such as Law Merchant and the Common Law, were essential to liberty and prosperity: "Entering the Twenty-first century, what modern choices in legal relations are becoming available consistent with the dynamic market process...
...Don Nickles and Colorado Rep...
...California union bosses promise to spend $2o-$3o million to defeat CRI...
...and also require labor unions to obtain "annual, written, authorization" before using any portion of a member's dues for political purposes...
...Sizemore has won five of the last six initiatives he has organized...
...30 — Sept...
...A March 1997 survey of 800 California voters selected to match a June 1998 primary electorate—and informed of union attacks on the initiative—found better than 4-1 support for CRI (72.9 percent support, 17.5 percent opposed...
...Four years later the five—now folded into one PAC—had only $15,452...
...Marc Racicot, who's been speaking at GOP meetings around the nation, knows that enacting paycheck protection would further raise his visibility in the party...
...Unions collect some $8 billion in dues each year—an average of $500 from each of 16 million union members...
...The American Legislative Exchange Council, a group of 3,000 conservative state legislators, has drafted sample legislation and unanimously endorsed paycheck protection...
...The Washington state teachers' union (WEA), with a $42 million annual budget (as opposed to $8 million combined for the state's DemocratHe's leading the way on Paycheck Protection...
...Incidentally, there's an added bonus: it also defunds the GOP's best-financed and most implacable opponents—the labor union bosses who've taken over the Democratic Party...
...In 1994 his defense of Proposition 187 to forbid welfare spending on behalf of illegal aliens helped ensure that national welfare reform, which passed in 1996, would end welfare for illegal immigrants...
...The unions refused to cooperate and the Democrats on Thompson's committee suddenly lost interest in looking at outside groups...
...In November 1992, Washington state passed Initiative 134, which outlawed collection or use of union dues for political purposes without a member's prior written permission (which must be annually renewed...
...In July 1993, the five United Auto Workers PACs had a combined $630,136 on hand...
...Box 7031, Alexandria, Virginia 22307, USA or donaldsonj@heritage.org or lliggio@osfl.gmu.edu The American Spectator • February 1998 65...
...For Michigan's five largest unions, total cash on hand fell from $1.7 million to $397,000 — a 75 percent drop...
...The essays will be judged by an international panel of three senior members of the Society...
...Similar efforts are underway in Nevada, led by the GOP, and in Arizona, where tax activist Sydney Hoff-Hay is doing the organizing...
...While striking at the Democratic Party's use of compulsory dues for politics, CRI will allow unions to ask members for money to play politics, just as the National Rifle Association sends out solicitation letters...
...It is the last prohibition that would change American politics forever...
...Texas Gov...
...64 February 1998 • The American Spectator is and Republican parties), saw an 8o percent drop in members willing to contribute to WEA politics, from approximately 45,000 to 8,000...
...On December 9, union honchos met in Chicago to plot their response to paycheck protection...
...As modem unions have come to devote less time to organizing workers and more to politics, it's probably more realistic to estimate that io percent of union dues go to politics...
...To date they've been reduced to bragging that a few liberal Republican congressmen may vote with them against it...
...The deadline for submission of essays is April 30, 1998...
...The result...
...Mindful of the attention and respect this cause has brought Wilson, a number of governors are likely to compete to have their states pass paycheck protection first...
...It will appear as a referred question, and thus not require the signature of Democrat governor Roy Romer...
...Ten percent union officials' time, io percent of the phone bill, io percent of travel...
...But when Thompson asked to look into the files of the AFL-CIO, the investigation was shut down...
...union-paid...
...In the recent election to replace Rep...
...Conservatives such as new GOPAC head Shelly Kamins are focusing on the "Republican Eleven"—states with Republican governors and GOP control of both houses of the state legislature—as the most likely to pass paycheck protection legislation...
...Petitions are now circulating in Oregon for an initiative to prohibit the use of public funds in collecting "political funds...
...At present, workers in the 29 states without right-to-work laws can be required to join a union, or at least pay dues, as a condition of employment...
...C alifornia's Campaign Reform Initiative — now increasingly known as Paycheck Protection—is just the beginning of the bad news for organized labor...
...Prize information and additional details are available from: The Mont Pelerin Society, P.O...
...George W. Bush and South Carolina Gov...
...The number of state public employee union members making political contributions fell from more than 40,000 to 82...
...The puny $35 million they spent last time around on televised ads attacking Republicans was just the tip of the iceberg...
...Wilson's optimism is supported by polling data...
...We don't have to guess...
...The drive is being led by Oregon Taxpayers United president Bill Sizemore, a likely candidate for governor this year...
...Government employee unions would not be allowed to withhold dues for political purposes...
...The Hayek Fellowships will be awarded for the three best essays on the above topic...
...Among Republicans it won by and by 2-1 among Democrats and 3-1 among union households...
...At a meeting of the Republican Governors Association in Miami last November 20, Pete Wilson won unanimous support for a resolution endorsing paycheck protection...
...Democrats know the irreplaceable value of Big Labor money: When Senator Fred Thompson's committee subpoenaed the Democratic National Committee and the White House, they merely complained...
...POLITICS by Grover G. Norquist Pete Wilson's Moment G overnor Pete Wilson of California has decided to change the world: In September he put his personal and political prestige on the line by agreeing to serve as chairman of the California Campaign Reform Initiative...
...They're not bluffing...
...adds up to $800 million each year, or $1.6 billion each election cycle...
...Bill McCollum is leading an effort to get a similar initiative on the November ballot...
...In 1996, his support and fundraising prowess propelled the California Civil Rights Initiative to victory and onto the national scene...
...But as any direct-mail expert will tell you, the response rate to such requests is not the loo percent that compulsory union dues bring in...
...This isn't the first time Pete Wilson has shaped the agenda for the Republican Party and its would-be leaders...
...Former Golden Rule Insurance Company CEO Pat Rooney has been traveling from state capital to state capital promoting this legislation...
...When the initial signature gathering effort appeared to lag thanks to union leaders' use of "Street Heat" thugs to harass signature collectors and intimidate potential signers, Wilson sent out letters to 1.4 million Republican households in time to turn in 740,000 "raw" signatures, enough to guarantee placement on the June ballot...
...The Michigan Education Association PAC fell from $851,866 to $356,974 during this same period...
...To qualify for the June 2, 1998 primary ballot CRI needed 433,000 signatures by last November 13...
...4, 1998) Mont Pelerin Society late presidents, F.A...
...Legislation will be introduced in all fifty states by January 21 and supporters plan a nationwide pressconference with press events in all fifty state capitals and Washington as well...
...The result...
...Paycheck protection can only be described as a Republican winner: It permits GOP congressmen, state legislators, and governors not only to stand on principle on behalf of citizens who don't want to have their money taken away and spent against their interests, but also to side with union members against the union bosses...
...In Florida, Rep...
...The measure also prohibited political paycheck deductions from state employees...
...In April 1994, Michigan Governor John Engler took advantage of a temporary three-seat majority in the state house of representatives to pass Frank Fitzgerald's (R-Grand Ledge) PA 117, which added unions to an existing ban on corporate contributions and outlawed the "negative checkoff" that leaves members with the unpleasant and risky task of having to ask their union to return the money it took from them...
...The Board of Directors of the Mont Pelerin Society Announces the Friedrich A. Hayek Fellowships for the 1988 GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY MEETING OF THE MONT PELERIN SOCIETY (Washington, D.C...
...prohibit employers from making automatic deductions from an employee's pay for political contributions without annual, written authorization from the employee...
...Most union political spending goes unreported and, to the establishment press, unseen...
...Wilson believes CRI supporters will raise more than $12 million...
...Republicans also used this opportunity to ban bingo as a fundraising tool...
...The rest were more loyal to—or afraid of—the labor bosses than their own president and vice president...
...Susan Molinari, pro-Democrat unions sent an estimated 5,000 campaign "volunteers" into her district—all of them GROVER G. NORQUIST is president of Americans for Tax Reform...
...The teachers' unions alone spent more than $20 million to defeat Proposition 174, a school-choice initiative that lost by 6o to 40 in November 1994...
...In Colorado, state senate president Tom Norton and house speaker Chuck Berry are both running for governor but will cooperate to use the Republican majorities in their respective chambers to put a paycheck protection measure on the November 1998 ballot...
...Essays of 5,000 words or less may be submitted by students or faculty members 35 years of age or younger...
...David Beasley may work with conservative Democrats to pass paycheck protection...
...Two years after Initiative 134 passed the GOP picked up six House seats in Washington, including that of then Speaker Thomas Foley, and won both houses of the state legislature...
...On the Democratic side, the growing power of labor unions was demonstrated last fall when only 41 of205 House Democrats voted to grant the president fast-track negotiating authority...
...Montana Gov...
...How many union members would stop funding Big Labor's political machine if donations became voluntary...
...Bob Schaffer...
...At the federal level the "Paycheck Protection Act" is being sponsored by Oklahoma Sen...
...The initiative passed with 71 percent of the vote...
...If approved by voters on June 2, this latest California initiative will outlaw political contributions by foreigners...
...According to Rutgers economist Leo Troy, it is from this $8 billion pot that unions spend an estimated $300 to $500 million on politics each election cycle...
...A Washington Post/ABC News poll last October found 82 percent support nationally for the requirement that "unions need to get permission from individual union members to use dues for political purposes...
...as long as the unions outspend proponents by 3 to 1 rather than io to 1, he says, the initiative should pass...
Vol. 31 • February 1998 • No. 2
