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You must act now to save California!

It is time for each of us to do our part to save California. The state is teetering on the brink of financial collapse.   No one is coming to save us.  Only you can fix California.  You must act now or California will fail.

• Join us at the Citizen Power Rally.
• Sign the petition with your friends.
• Make a donation.

Fiscal meltdown

California is in a fiscal meltdown.  The budget crisis has forced painful cuts to education, healthcare, and highways. Worse, a looming pension crisis is on the horizon.  When the state runs out of money, then what?

The root cause

There is growing  bipartisan consensus that the root cause of our crisis is California’s public employee unions.  “At some point,” said former San Francisco Mayor and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D), “Someone is going to have to get honest about the fact that 80 percent of the state, county and city budget deficits are due to employee costs.”

Congressman Tom McClintock (R) agrees, “People on both sides of the aisle know that public employee unions have too much power in Sacramento and stand in the way of real reform.”  Senate candidate Tom Campbell explains, “Our state budget is broken.  Our state pensions are broken. They’re broken because Sacramento is broken — dominated by a political machine where the public employee unions have excessive power in influencing legislation and budgets.”

“California’s fiscal crisis will continue unless we can break the political machine,” says Senate candidate Chuck DeVore, ” The political alliance created by legislators and the powerful public employee unions who bankroll their campaigns results in bigger government, more spending, and taxpayers are shut out of the process.”  Political activist Mark Meckler explains, “It’s a corrupt, rigged system, and we taxpayers are left holding the bag.”

Unplug the political machine

“The Citizen Power Initiative is the only way to truly reform California’s state government,” says Mark Meckler, one of five proponents of the measure.  The Citizen Power Initiative is a constitutional amendment that will end the corrupt practice of public employee unions using members’ dues collected by the government for political donations.  “Government should not be taking what is essentially taxpayer money and giving it to union bosses for politics,” says Chuck DeVore.

“Now is the time to repair our broken democracy and make California governable again, ” says Tom Campbell, “The Citizen Power Initiative is a necessary first step. We can’t fix anything while the public employee unions are able to defend the system that got us to our present crisis.  Even now, these unions are filing lawsuits to block the spending cuts we need to balance our budget.  And they’re paying for this with money that comes from their members, who are paid out of taxpayer’s pockets. The Citizen Power Initiative fixes this.”

It’s up to you

California’s future is up to you.  If you do nothing, then California will fail.  You must do your part – for yourself, your friends, your family, for all the people counting on you to fix California’s democracy.

You must act now to support the Citizen Power Campaign and qualify the Citizen Power Initiative for the November 2010 ballot.

• Join us at the rally.
• Sign the petition with your friends.
• Make a donation.

California gubernatorial candidate Tom Campbell today endorsed the Citizen Power Initiative as one of the most important reforms for turning around California’s troubled state government.  Campbell is the first gubernatorial candidate of either party to endorse the measure, which will end the practice of allowing taxpayer money to be funneled to political causes through public employee unions’ paychecks.  “Fixing our broken state government is priority one,” he said. “That’s why I am running for governor.”  The Citizen Power Campaign issued the following press release:

Tustin, CA [December 30, 2009] -  California gubernatorial candidate Tom Campbell today endorsed the Citizen Power Initiative as one of the most important reforms for turning around California’s troubled state government.  The Citizen Power Initiative is a California ballot measure and proposed constitutional amendment that will end the practice of allowing taxpayer money to be funneled to political causes through public employee unions’ paychecks.

Campbell is the first gubernatorial candidate of either party to endorse the Citizen Power Initiative.  “Fixing our broken state government is priority one,” he said. “That’s why I am running for governor.  Our state budget is broken.  Our state pensions are broken. They’re broken because 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,” says Campbell, “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.  In Sacramento, however, that’s how the system works. Once in a while, those who aspire to lead our state have to show they’re not afraid actually to show leadership.  That’s why I’m helping lead the charge for the Citizen Power Initiative.”

The Citizen Power Campaign (www.UnplugThePoliticalMachine.org) is currently collecting signatures to qualify the Citizen Power Initiative for the November 2010 ballot.  The proponents have until mid-April to render nearly 700,000 valid signatures to the Secretary of State.

“Tom Campbell’s endorsement shows there are politicians with the courage to do what’s right, even in the face of immense public employee union pressure. We truly appreciate his willingness to take a stand for what he believes,” said Mark Meckler, one of the measure’s five proponents. Meckler, who also serves as the California co-coordinator and a National Coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, explained, “In 2005, a similar initiative was placed on the state ballot and was narrowly defeated because the public employee unions and their corrupt political machine spent millions to do so.”

“Now, California is in a worse crisis and needs this reform even more,” says Meckler, “But today, the electorate is much more informed, much angrier at government irresponsibility, and thanks to the tea parties, much more activated. People from all walks of life in California now understand the institutional corruption in Sacramento is caused by all the political money flowing to the unions from the state government, and they are actively working to stop it through the Citizen Power Initiative.”

“California is at a tipping point,” Campbell explains, “Now is the time to repair our broken democracy and make California governable again.  The Citizen Power Initiative is a necessary first step. We can’t fix anything while the public employee unions are able to defend the system that got us to our present crisis.  Even now, these unions are filing lawsuits to block the spending cuts we need to balance our budget.  And they’re paying for this with money that comes from their members, who are paid out of taxpayer’s pockets. The Citizen Power Initiative fixes this.  That’s the kind of change I hope to bring to Sacramento.”

To read the full text of the initiative and to learn more, visit www.UnplugThePoliticalMachine.org and click on “The Solution.”

To download petitions and join the Citizen Power Campaign’s online community, visit www.UnplugThePoliticalMachine.ning.com.

THE CITIZEN POWER CAMPAIGN

The Citizen Power Campaign combines grassroots taxpayer organizers, retirees, and political veterans.  The initiative’s official proponents are Mark Meckler and Dawn Wildman, California’s Tea Party Patriot state coordinators; Larry Sand, retired public school teacher and founder of the California Teacher Empowerment Network; Allan Mansoor, Costa Mesa Mayor and Orange County Deputy Sheriff; and Mark Bucher, Orange County attorney and author of the 1998 ‘paycheck protection’ initiative, Proposition 226.  The Lincoln Club of Orange County, a group of about 200 business owners and executives who believe in limited government, lower taxes, and the promotion of free enterprise, has been an early supporter and financial contributor to the Citizen Power Campaign.

Taxpayers must stop Obama’s Big Labor slush fund cover-up.  Big Labor Secretary Hilda Solis is helping cover up Big Labor slush fund contributions by not requiring Big Labor to complete union trust disclosure documents.  These reports disclose Big Labor’s taxpayer funded political operations and front groups, including ACORN and many other shadowy groups.  Taxpayers have until December 14 to share your comments with the Big Labor Department and demand greater transparency, not less.  This outrageous cover-up offers more proof why California needs the Citizen Power Campaign to stop public employee unions from using taxpayer money for special interest politics.

Demand public employee union transparency. Tell the President:

LABOR UNIONS MUST BE REQUIRED TO DISCLOSE THEIR POLITICAL CONTRIBUTIONS BECAUSE IT IS NECESSARY TO THE PUBLIC INTEREST, BECAUSE:
(1) MANY MEMBERS ARE FORCED TO JOIN,
(2) FORCED TO PAY DUES,
(3) FORCED TO FUND SPECIAL INTEREST POLITICS AGAINST THEIR WISHES;
(4) MOST OF THIS MONEY COMES FROM TAXPAYERS, AND
(5) NON-DISCLOSURE CREATES AN APPEARANCE OF CORRUPTION.
NON-DISCLOSURE WILL CREATE A PUBLIC BACKLASH AGAINST UNIONS THAT WILL RESULT IN STATE LAWS FORBIDDING USE OF TAXPAYER MONEY FOR PUBLIC EMPLOYEE UNIONS.
NON-DISCLOSURE TELLS THE PUBLIC THAT THE PRESIDENT FAVORS BIG LABOR OVER TAXPAYERS AND WORKERS.
NON-DISCLOSURE WILL BACKFIRE ON THE PRESIDENT.

The public employee unions are plundering and bankrupting California and the nation.  That’s the bottom line of Steve Greenhut’s new book, Plunder: How Public Employee Unions are Raiding Treasuries, Controlling Our Lives and Bankrupting the Nation.  KFI radio’s Bill Handel interviewed Greenhut, former editor of the Orange County Register, earlier this week to discuss the book.  (Bill Handel podcast at 15:00) The book is a necessary primer on why California state government is broken – and how to fix it.  Greenhut proves why the Citizen Power Campaign is necessary to fix California state government by stopping the use of taxpayer dollars for politics by the public employee unions.

Steve Greenhut chronicles how the public employee unions have turned state government upside down. “Government employees are supposed to work for the public- not the other way around”, says reviewer Robert W. Loewen, President of the Lincoln Club of Orange County, “Unfortunately, because of the overwhelming political influence of government unions, public employees have gained an unsustainable level of pay and benefits. … The public servants have indeed become the public’s masters.” Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association warns, “If you take high blood pressure medicine, better take a double dose before reading this book. … The good news is that Greenhut gives valuable advice at the end of the book on what we can do to turn the tide on this seemingly unstoppable socialistic encroachment.”

Greenhut proves why the Citizen Power Campaign is necessary to fix California state government by stopping the use of taxpayer dollars for politics by the public employee unions.  People forget how the public employee unions spent $148.5 million in 2005 to defeat Governor Schwarzenegger’s reforms that might have have prevented our budget mess or softened the blow .  The reforms they defeated included spending limits, a rainy day fund, and “paycheck protection” (requiring unions to get the consent of their members before spending their union dues on politics).  The Citizen Power Campaign is a necessary first step in fixing California.