Labor group reaches into GOP districts
Taxes Tuesday, May 31st, 2011
By Steven Harmon, MercuryNews.com
SACRAMENTO — The last group you’d think would sway Republican voters is a public employee labor union.
But David Kieffer, the political director of the Service Employees International Union, thinks he has the tools and the approach to persuade GOP voters to support its highest political priority: extending the current level of sales, income and auto taxes to help close the state’s $10 billion deficit.
It is a multimillion-dollar experiment for the SEIU, the largest public employee union in California, with 700,000 members. Kieffer has targeted 10 Republican legislators’ districts with TV, radio and newspaper ads, fliers and billboards over the past two weeks. The TV and radio campaign has reached 2.6 million viewers and listeners in five markets: Sacramento, Fresno, Monterey, Santa Barbara and Palm Springs.
The campaign has two purposes: to provide cover for some Republicans who are considering voting for taxes, or at least voting to put tax extensions on the ballot as legislators work toward the June 15 budget deadline; and to harangue other Republicans who may be vulnerable to accusations that they are blocking reasonable compromise solutions.
“Republicans who want to do the right thing will know they will have the political backing to do it,” Kieffer said. “They don’t have to worry about right-wing attacks in a primary. We’ll have their backs if they stand up to an all-cuts budget.”
A short-term objective is to help persuade four Republicans to vote for tax extensions this year; a long-term goal is to elect moderate, pro-government Republicans in newly drawn districts in 2012 and beyond under the new top-two primary system, in which two members of the same party could face each other in a general election.
To read more, visit: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18156569?nclick_check=1
Short URL: https://reteaparty.com/?p=1721
