Award Winner!

I'll need to dust off the mantle, as this blog is up for its very first award. Speak Out California has nominated one of my posts in its Best California Posts of 2005 Contest. I find myself wholly unworthy for this honor but quite thankful to Speak Out CA. There doesn't seem to be any mechanism on the site for voting, but you can add comments about the posts. The only comment so far is a wholly negative reaction to my post.

The post was about a Prop. 75 focus group I did a few months back. I criticized the messaging for the anti-Prop. 75 ads we were shown, saying they were too vague and didn't explain WHY to not vote for it, instead of that you simply shouldn't. The critic said that the election results obviously showed that the messaging was dead-on, as Prop. 75 failed.

In retrospect there was a major anti-Arnold wave that drove all his props to defeat. And more of that messaging entered into the ads they eventually put on the air. However, Prop 75 came the closest of all the initiatives to pulling out a victory. It got 46.5% of the vote after $100 million in union campaign funds were dumped into the state. It almost beat the parental notification law.

That seems to me to be because bashing unions has become a too-effective strategy, and we're trying to compete against it on the margins.

In addition, this issue is not dead. The LA Times noted last month that a new anti-union measure will hit the ballot next year.

It will be modeled after a Utah law called the "voluntary contributions act." That law forbids public employee unions from spending any dues on politics. All politicking must be funded through a political action committee. And governments are prohibited from collecting PAC money with payroll deductions.

As long as we don't defend unions strongly and unequivocally, the forces of big business will continue to try to minimize their effectiveness.

I think the point of all of this is, I WAS GIVEN AN AWARD!!!! Suck on that!