TEACHERS UNION LIES TO WIN ELECTION

Measure 64 would have ended the policy of using the public payroll system, including public employee time on the job, public buildings, and public equipment and supplies to collect political funds for the public employee unions. The public employee unions combined are reportedd to have spent $12 million to $14 million to barely defeat this popular measure, thus shattering the all-time record for spending on an Oregon ballot measure.

However, to insure that they would win the election, public employee unions and their campaign committee, Defend Oregon, made several false statements in their ads and even committed libel and slander against the sponsor of the measure, yours truly.

The unions began their television campaign with a commercial telling voters that Measure 64 would (somehow) keep firefighters, nurses and teachers from doing their jobs. I scratched my head the first time I saw that ad, wondering how a measure, which merely ended political payroll deductions, could keep firefighters from fighting fires, nurses from helping sick people, and teachers from teaching kids.

The unions’ next ad told voters that charities like the Oregon Food Bank would not be able to collect food for the poor and hungry, if the measure passed. Of course, those charities that used the money they collected solely to provide for the needy (and not for politics) would not be affected by the measure, but that didn’t seem to matter to the unions. The ad was in my opinion intentionally misleading. FULL STORY.

This story sounds a lot like the Judicial Accountability Amendment E that was defeated in South Dakota in 2006.