Is it time to reign in public union political contributions? Assembly Republican Leader Jon Bramnick thinks so. He said on October 14th ,“that the state teachers union has mounted expensive campaigns against candidates from his party — not to improve the situation in schools, but to save their own pensions.” He is quite right and it disturbs me very much that a public workers union can and does wield so much political power.
The Assemblyman further said, “Why should voters know that the teachers’ union — one entity in the state — is donating more money than the entire Republican party is able to raise by two times?” Bramnick asked. The answer, he said, “is that the union wants to stop further pension reform by the state government.” This makes this union a very powerful political entity and this should bother all of us. In the past this union has controlled the legislature and has dictated policy to these same legislators. It did not stop until Governor Chris Christie was elected and stood up against them.
Bramnick further pointed out that, “We don’t automatically deduct dues from anybody. We don’t automatically take mandatory dues and put it into a political fund. We don’t have that option.” He is right to say that any public union can unduly influence the legislators by giving or even threatening to give money to their political opponent. This level of what I will call interference needs to be curtailed; yet if anyone thinks that this can happen they need to see the truth. The political truth is that public unions collect large amounts of money from their members and do not use it for the members direct benefit, but for the union’s own.
From an article from NJ.com in September of 2014, “The NJEA has spent $57 million since 1999 – including $19.5 million in 2013 alone, when it largely propped up the underfunded and unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign of Democrat Barbara Buono. “NJEA is considered a powerhouse in Trenton and for good reason,” wrote Jeff Brindle, ELEC’s executive director. “Few special interest groups come close to matching its financial clout,” said Brindle.” This is ridiculous! No public workers union should be able to take its members dues and use them to control those who should be making laws that directly control what they can do.
It is time for the voting public to say no more and a law should be crafted that prevents any public workers union, like the NJEA, from making any political donations at all. Can or will this happen, the short answer is no. The long answer is that we need initiative and referendum to make this happen. There is no way in this political mess that our legislators will ever bite the hand that feeds their political campaigns. We as voters have no one to blame for this more than ourselves. By being so blasé about what has been happening in our political system we have not done anything to make the politicians pay more attention to us the voters and ignore these public workers unions.
That is my opinion- Jumpin Jersey Mike
