The union/progressive campaign to pass Measure L – which would replace at-large council elections with a by-district system — received a big infusion of union money on Tuesday.
The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union gave $60,000 to the Committee for District Elections, which is running the Yes on Measure L campaign. The Committee for District Elections is being run by veteran left-wing activist Eric Altman, recently departed from running the progressive advocacy group OCCORD.
Now, this is money from the national UFCW, not a local affiliate. Shifting Anaheim to by-district elections is important enough to the national UFCW in Washington, D.C., that it cuts a check for $60,000 – the single biggest donation to date to the Yes on Measure L campaign. Amazing how the UFCW can see clearly from 3,000 miles away what a surprising number of local Republicans cannot (or will not).
That brings total known contributions to the pro-Measure L campaign to $206,100 (I say “known” because we won’t know until the next campaign reports how much was contributed during July). All of this money is from liberal special interests. Much of it is “dark money.” Not a penny of it is from Anaheim.
Who knows? Now that the total has exceeded $200,000, the Voice of OC and the OC Register might actually report on this flood of union and left-wing money from outside of Anaheim trying to change how Anaheim elects its city council.
At this point, no reasonable, sentient being can deny Measure L is a political enterprise of the Left to shift control of Anaheim city government to the Democrats by changing how the city council is elected. Unions give money to advance union interests. Progressive issue advocacy groups like PowerPAC.org and OCCORD give money to advance a progressive political agenda.
We have an Anaheim in Wonderland situation where the conservative Republican mayor of Anaheim – who is campaigning to “take back Anaheim from the Special Interests” not only supports the campaign by a coalition of left-wing special interests to take over Anaheim, but signed their ballot argument. His visible and enthusiastic support of the long campaign for by-district elections has effectively discouraged and deterred active, organized opposition by Republican and conservative leadership in the county. It’s difficult to overestimate his strategic value to this union/progressive campaign. Stranger than fiction.
Also, keep in mind that all this “Yes on Measure L” money will serve the dual-purpose as an independent expenditure for left-wing Democrat Jose Moreno’s campaign for the Anaheim City Council. Moreno was the lead plaintiff on the ACLU lawsuit that put it on the ballot. He has been closely involved in this effort from Day One. You can be absolutely sure that every piece of campaign literature sent out by the Yes on Measure L campaign will promote Jose Moreno to Anaheim voters.
If that doesn’t send up a red flag for residents, I don’t know what will!
how much money does the NO on L and M have… please disclose all that information.
You can find that info the same way he did, on the City of Anaheim website.
Safe bet that Tom Tait will re-register as a democrat right after the election.
You can count on it that the mail funded with this money will also support Tait and Moreno. That’s the real ticket in this race. The other two are just window dressing for Taits GOP flank. Let’s hope the electorate in Anaheim is more clever than the county party’s leadership. What point is there to have a union free pledge when you look the other way at this kind of support. What a joke.