Teachers Union Ups Ballot Ante

In a single afternoon of money transfers, the California Teachers Assn. poured $21 million into the campaign to defeat Republican-backed initiatives on the Nov. 8 ballot, donating nearly as much in one day as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has raised so far this year.

The donations, which became public late Thursday, underscored the influence of the teachers union in California politics and pushed its political spending for the year to $45 million.

Schwarzenegger has raised $24 million since the start of the year in his effort to win passage of three initiatives on the November ballot.

The union is “a force to be reckoned with,” said Jack Pitney, professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. “You don’t ordinarily think of teachers as having lots of money, and that is true individually,” Pitney added. “Add them all up, and you have a good chunk of change.”

Earlier this year, the membership of the California Teachers Assn. approved a dues increase of $60 per member to add to its political funds. The union has roughly 330,000 members.

Teachers and other public employee unions, which are leading the campaign against the governor’s measures, regularly dog Schwarzenegger at his fundraisers and mount increasingly noisy protests. Some unions have threatened to boycott companies that donate to the campaigns in favor of measures on the Nov. 8 ballot.

Representatives of the teachers say the $21 million in campaign donations won’t undermine labor’s protests against the governor and his fundraising.

“You’re looking at $60 per member, as opposed to the governor, who is reaching out to one or two corporations that can give him hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Barbara Kerr, the teachers union president.

Todd Harris, Schwarzenegger’s campaign spokesman, said the donations show the teachers union has “become the single biggest obstacle to change and reform in the state.”

“This is exactly how California got into the mess it is in the first place,” Harris said. “All of these special interests have grown quite fat and happy off the fact that California spends more money than it takes in.”

Spending on the Nov. 8 campaign may not set a single-year record for initiatives, but it is sure to be considerable. The teachers are not the biggest spenders; pharmaceutical companies are.

Campaign finance reports show drug companies have raised $76 million to promote Proposition 78, their prescription drug plan, and to fight Proposition 79, a prescription plan backed by organized labor.

The campaign finance reports filed late Thursday show that the teachers union gave $5 million to battle Proposition 74, which would make it harder for beginning teachers to gain job protection.

The union gave $8 million to oppose Proposition 76, which would grant governors greater power over the state budget. The initiative could weaken a teacher-backed law, approved by voters in 1988, guaranteeing that more than a third of the state’s general budget is spent on public schools.

Schwarzenegger has endorsed both of those measures.

The union also gave $8 million to fight Proposition 75, which would limit the ability of public employee unions to raise money from members for campaigns. Schwarzenegger has not taken a position on that measure.

Unions, as well as Democratic and some Republican officeholders, have also put money into opposing Proposition 77, which would give a panel of retired judges the power to draw legislative boundaries. That proposition is the third on Schwarzenegger’s endorsed list. How much of the anti-77 money has come from the teachers union is not known because the money is being passed through a combined campaign fund.

Before Thursday’s donations, the teachers union had spent $15 million for and against ballot measures this year, plus an additional $8.2 million directly on radio and television advertising, much of it aimed at Schwarzenegger.

Taken together, the four initiatives on the Nov. 8 ballot would “dramatically hurt public education,” said Gale Kaufman, who is managing the campaign against the governor’s measures.

“How could we not run campaigns against them?” Kaufman asked. “Unfortunately, campaigns cost money.”

Kerr, referring to the heavy spending and nonstop campaigning, said “every step is painful.”

But she said the teachers believe they have no choice.

“There is nothing in the governor’s proposals that will help California have better education,” Kerr said.