Prop. 75 Puts Police on the Side of Liberals

Talk about strange bedfellows. This is from the Los Angeles Times:

[P]olice unions, a hybrid of law-and-order conservatism and bread-and-butter liberalism. They may tilt Republican in party loyalty, but their labor representatives frequently turn to Democrats on matters such as pay and pensions.

That paradox is on stark display in the battle over Proposition 75, a November ballot measure that would require public employee unions to get members' written permission to spend their dues on political campaigns.

California police unions are mobilizing against the proposition and its largely conservative backers. They contend Proposition 75 is designed to make it hopelessly cumbersome for them to raise election funds.

The initiative has deepened the rift between public employee unions and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican who backs the measure.

Schwarzenegger riled labor by trying to shift government pensions to private accounts. He abandoned that idea earlier this year after the unions pummeled him with a campaign of media ads and street rallies, which saw police officers close ranks with firefighters, nurses and teachers.

The unions describe Proposition 75 as an attempt to weaken their ability to fend off future runs at their retirement packages. If it passes and succeeds in shrinking labor campaign treasuries, they say, the initiative would give anti-union corporate interests a ballot-season spending advantage.

Among the initiative's proponents are a business coalition aligned with Schwarzenegger, tax-cut crusaders and the state Republican Party, which complains unions contribute disproportionately to Democrats.

So here we have the cops--who are staunchly Republican--joining up with the Democratic unions to oppose the Governator's Proposition 75. Prop. 75 would not only limit those Democratic-leaning public employees unions, or the grocery, hotel, or teacher's unions ability to raise campaign funds, but apparently also the policemen's unions. The Governator is cutting off the support of the cops for the interests of his Big Business benefactors. If Proposition 75 passes, this may have major repercussions in the Governator's re-election campaign where the policeman's unions may oppose the Governator. Is it no wonder that his popularity in California polls have also been steadily dropping?