« Ridiculous Righty Response to TABOR Concerns | Main | Forgive me Father for I have sinned... »

August 22, 2006

Union Facts Campaign Relying on Caricatures

A couple of days ago, I wrote about the connection between the Union "Facts" campaign and TABOR advocates. Today, the Eugene Register Guard has an article addressing the connection, as well.

The Center for Union Facts, based in Washington, D.C., is spending about $1 million to place print, radio and TV ads in Oregon and three other states: Michigan, Montana and Nevada. All four states have initiative measures on their November ballots that resemble the TABOR, or Taxpayer Bill of Rights, law enacted and later suspended by Colorado voters.

Those ballot measures "were a factor but not the controlling factor" in deciding which states to place the new ads in, said businessman and lobbyist Richard Berman, the Center for Union Facts' executive director.

"It seemed more attractive to do public education in a state where the public has a hand in voting" on such matters, Berman said.

So we're supposed to believe this is an independent effort, not a coordinated one? Should we ignore the fact that the ads were screened at this past weekend's Americans for Limited Government Action Conference in a session entitled "Understanding the Opposition" and moderated by Paul Jacob? Independent, my ass.

If you want a glimpse at how the right views public employee union members, just look at the stereotypical caricatures this campaign is presenting:

An initial ad in today's Register-Guard depicts a scowling bureaucrat in a Department of Motor Vehicles office, beneath the words " `Service' like this doesn't come cheap."

Or download this lovely flyer called "The Inquisitor" from the ALG website.

In Montana, the group's media ads claim that "union chiefs have greased the system".

One TV ad … suggests that public employees are lazy clock-watchers who waste away the day chatting to each other about their generous vacation and sick-time benefits, while a frustrated line of people waits to license vehicles.

It makes me wonder whether Montana voters will ever have the opportunity to find out what this million-dollar campaign is NOT telling them - that most of the people who work in Montana's vehicle registration offices make about $19,000 a year, and a few make $23,000.

The Nevada version of the media campaign has run into some trouble over pronunciation of the state's name:

No sooner did we have the "Club for Growth" exposed as a conservative PAC, now we have "Nevada Union Facts" dissing the Nevada "educational unions." Gee, how do we know it's not from Nevada? Because every time they have it on TV, the gal says "NeVAHda." You'd think those people would learn.

I suppose we can always hope they screw up at some point and say "OryGONE" in their ads here.

Posted by Becky at August 22, 2006 12:50 PM