Stop Arnold Weblog

Unions at odds with Schwarzenegger - Nurses stage protests at area Sutter hospitals

"No in November" RN RV Road Tour Update

Sutter Roseville Hospital nurse Laurie Cord protests against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives Tuesday at the governor's appearance in Roseville. Cord, on a tour of state hospitals with the California Nurses Association, said the proposition could hurt public employee unions, schools.

The California Nurses Association, a union representing 58,000 RNs in the state, made a stop at Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital Tuesday to inform nurses of measures they say will stifle workers' voices. "This hits everybody in California, every working person," said Laurie Cord, a Sutter Roseville Hospital bedside nurse and former Sutter Auburn nurse.

One of the ballot measures is Proposition 75, which would seek written consent from all public employee union members to give a portion of union dues to a political cause. Cynthia Oliveira, a surgical nurse at Sutter Auburn, collected "Stop Arnold" signs and literature Tuesday from the California Nurses Association's "RN RV," a recreational vehicle touring California hospitals. (read more)

How Does She Do It?

One of the interesting questions around this election--how can Maria Shriver watch the Democratic base be so directly attacked?

More on the attacks in an article by Larry Gerston in the San Jose Mercury News.  He reports:

Across the nation, labor's enemies are in a state of near-euphoria, and for good reason. Pro-business/anti-tax interests view unions in California as the linchpin of organized labor everywhere. They have a point. In California, unions represent 18 percent of the workforce, compared with less than 13 percent nationally. So, the thinking goes, if the legs can be pulled out from organized labor in California, the table will be set for similar coups in other states with less successful union movements. Sensing victory, anti-union groups have funneled millions of dollars into the ``Yes on Proposition 75'' campaign.

In this context Maris is re-emerging to do appearances for her husband--just like she did to get him elected.  She will NOT be talking directly about the initiatives, but she will be out there winning pub for her family and husband.  Carla Marinucci in the SF Chronicle writes:

Her appearance today on Oprah Winfrey's show will be in dramatic contrast to an earlier pre-election visit to her friend's TV stage. In September 2003, Shriver sat on the "Oprah" couch alongside her husband to proudly tout his family values and virtues -- and hit the stump statewide to make the case to millions of California women voters why her candidate-spouse, then battered by allegations of groping as he campaigned in the recall election for governor, would be good for the state.

There's good news!  The Stockton Record and the Riverside Press-Enterprise both endorsed NO on Prop 75.  Keep 'em coming!

Firefighters Aren't Extras

George Bush did the same thing.  How dare they.

Schwarzenegger got his firefighter chief buddies to order firefighters to serve as props in his press conferences last week.

Repeat after: nurses, teachers, firefighters and cops are the solution not the problem.

Read the AP story here.  The important parts:

BURBANK, Calif. - Firefighters who battled a 24,000-acre blaze last week accused their supervisors Thursday of forcing them to participate in a news conference with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has been at political odds with unions representing firefighters and other public employees.

Schwarzenegger's appearance at a command center in Thousand Oaks came as he pushes ballot initiatives opposed by firefighter unions, including Proposition 75, which would require unions to get members' permission before dues could be used for political purposes.

At the event Sept. 30, the governor shook hands and posed for pictures with a crowd of firefighters and other emergency workers.

Firefighters were "ordered and forced" to participate, Los Angeles County firefighter Greg Alldredge said Thursday at a news conference. "We were very displeased with this - having to shake hands with somebody who really doesn't support us."

Ventura County Fire Capt. Jack Nosco said he was among the firefighters ordered to flank Schwarzenegger at the event, in which the Republican governor lavishly praised several departments that extinguished the blaze along the edge of Los Angeles.

"We declined to do it voluntarily," Nosco said.

Insert Delay Joke Here

Whoops.  Arnold's campaign people are having a little funny money problem.  As Christian Berthelsen in the San Francisco Chronicle chronicles they've had to return a lot of money.  Christian writes:

Sacramento -- A ballot measure committee supporting Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's initiative to redraw California's political boundaries has returned $1.75 million in donations, after opponents accused the governor of violating the same election laws he charged them with breaking just a week earlier.

In addition, a lawyer for the Democratic Party is set to file a lawsuit today in the hopes of forcing the committee supporting Proposition 77 to disgorge an additional $1.1 million.

The setback for Prop. 77 advocates came as Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, said she would start raising money to defeat the measure. The House minority leader said she planned to ask all 33 Democratic members of California's delegation to pitch in and had the green light from federal elections regulators to raise unlimited funds.

You will recall that Prop. 76 was supported by some 19% of registered voters in a recent poll.  Ouch.

Of course it's all about turn-out; we have to remind Californians why they have to vote on this one.

Bob Salladay and Dan Morain in the LA Times note that we have entered a new stretch: traditional campaigning.  Schwarzenegger can now go out in public without the huge crowds following him.  Game on.  It's all about this election.  They write:

With less than five weeks left before the Nov. 8 special election, both sides set their sights on voters who plan to cast early ballots. Early voting begins in some cities in the next few weeks.

The Republican Party has a big absentee ballot campaign in the works. Strategists for the opposition to Schwarzenegger said they would focus on making sure that their own supporters who wanted absentee ballots got them, as well as on walking precincts and manning phone banks to encourage people to vote.

"We've always run a very aggressive volunteer campaign … and we'll continue that until election day," said Gale Kaufman, lead consultant for an umbrella group of public employee unions called the Alliance for a Better California.

Everywhere He Turns...

Everywhere he turns, Arnold Schwarzenegger finds the nurses and other public employees that he scapegoats are fighting back...from Oakland to Hollywood to Washington DC.  John Pomfret in the Washington Post has the story:

In his speech to the California Nurses Association, Beatty accused Schwarzenegger of governing "by show, by spin, by cosmetics, and photo ops, fake events, fake issues and fake crowds and backdrops." The crowd of 500 union delegates interrupted him throughout, chanting "Run, Warren, Run" as Beatty peppered his remarks with gags about nurses, enemas and Schwarzenegger's physique. As if the evening didn't already have enough star power, Beatty's wife, Annette Bening, joined him, as did actor and director Sean Penn.

The nurses union has been at the forefront of a boisterous anti-Schwarzenegger campaign after the governor declared open season on all public employee unions because of their influence over the Democratic-controlled legislature and their aversion to changing their pensions. Nurses hound him. On Tuesday, the organization posted an eBay sales page offering Schwarzenegger for "sale," saying it gave "regular people the chance to compete with wealthy individuals and big corporations to own the world's best known celebrity politician."