Culver City Observer -

Dear Editor,

Take this pop quiz:

What do Governor Gavin Newsom, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, San Francisco Mayor London Breed, and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo have in common?

Not one of them has missed a paycheck – even as they demand the closure of small businesses.

Everyone has dismissed the concerns of constituents who are crushed by government-ordered lockdowns.

And every one has been caught flouting the rules they impose on the rest of us.

Californians are furious. So how did we end up with politicians like these?

Because these officials aren’t accountable to us. They’re accountable to just one constituency:

Government Unions.

Collectively, California’s government unions collect $2 billion in member dues every election cycle. That's $2.7 million every day, 365 days every year – and that’s money union leaders use to keep their preferred politicians in office.

These government unions are by far the most powerful and lavishly overfunded political actors in California – and among the most powerful in the United States.

But what can you and I do about it?

The most powerful thing we can do to end this legalized corruption is to reduce the money that flows to unions in the form of member dues.

Today, more than a million public employees in California are trapped in a system that sucks dues payments out of the paychecks of virtually every government worker in the state. To escape that system, you have to know about it – and California lawmakers financed by the unions have made that nearly impossible.

But there's reason for hope.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Janus decision in 2018, some 225,000 government workers have left their unions, taking with them about $202 million in annual dues. That means less money for union shenanigans and more money in the pockets of the men and women who work in government.

CPC is at the forefront of the effort to help California’s government workers understand that they can follow their colleagues out of the unions wrecking California. We do that on TV, radio, and social media, in one-on-one conversations and in high-profile lawsuits.

All of our work is aimed at holding union leaders accountable for the damage they've done – and are doing right now – to your community.

So as we prepare to ring in 2021, I have a favor to ask.

If you have not given yet, please consider making a year-end gift to CPC.

If you’ve already had a chance to give, thank you! And if you’ve been waiting for the right time to jump in, this is it.

This is your last chance in 2020, and your gift of $61, $122, $305 or whatever you can give will allow us to help free one, two, or five public employees (respectively) from forced union membership.

Let’s make 2021 a year of freedom for hundreds more public union members who don’t want their hard-earned money to be used to drive California further and faster off the cliff.

Are you with me?

Let’s make 2021 a very happy new year!

Will Swaim

President