California 2010 Political Convention Sponsorships

[lawrocket 3]

I decided to take a bit of a look at the pending election scene here in Cali. Ahnold won't be running, so it's an open election. Taking a look at the Republican Convention Page, I wanted to see who was speaking, etc. I started with the Republican page. http://www.cagop.org/index.cfm/convention.htm

Then I looked at the Democratic convention site. http://cademconvention.org/

I noticed a difference after a couple of minutes. The Democrats listed their sponsors - 23 logos.
Unions:
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees
Association of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs
California Correctional Peace Officers Association
California Faculty Association
California Federation of Teachers
California Nurses Association
California School Employees Association
California Teachers Association
Laborers’ International Union of North America
Los Angeles Police Protective League (included here because of union affiliations and negotiation activities)
Operating Engineers Local 3
Professional Engineers in California Government
State Building and Construction Trades Council of California
United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council

Tribes
Barona Band of Mission Indians
San Manuel Band of Mission Indians

Lobbies
California Dental Association
California Professional Firefighters
Cooperative of American Physicians (also provider of E&O)

Business
Oracle

This, of course, leads me to seeing what else is up. On Monday, Stanford University released a study showing a California state pension liability of up to a half a trillion dollars. United Food and Commercial Workers Western States Council

These are the public employees and their unions. They are facing serious pension troubles. The California budget is where these are coming from, and some serious reform is necessary in order to bring this matter in line.

Now, take a look again at the list and the union sponsorships. It has been argued that reform cannot be achieved because the legislature is fundamentally controlled by public unions. They achieved this power in 1978 - when Governor Jerry Brown signed the Dill Act (giving collective bargaining to public unions).

And see this article: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-brown18-2010mar18,0,5583342,print.story

I cannot expect that the pension issue will be solved any time soon with anything other than dipping into tax dollars to cover it.

Note: I will be interested to see what the GOP sponsorship will look like. It'll indicate who keeps things rolling.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[Andy9o8 3]

I see Indians, but no Pakis. Why take sides?