SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California's public employee unions appeared headed Thursday for a politically crippling fight over labor's continued clout in the Capitol.
Lewis K. Uhler, a Sacramento anti-tax crusader, said he began submitting to county elections offices 600,000 voter signatures he has collected for an initiative that could hobble the political potency of public employee unions. The initiative needs 373,816 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot in a possible special election.
The measure would require unions to annually obtain written permission from each member to use their dues for political donations. That money has been the most important source of financial support for Democrats in Sacramento. Unions narrowly defeated a broader initiative in 1998 that would have placed the same requirement on private and public unions.
In large part to avert Uhler's proposition, the unions have been working feverishly to avoid the special election Schwarzenegger is threatening to call for later this year. Noting that the campaign has been underwritten by some of Schwarzenegger's closest business allies, they have made it clear that they will blame the governor -- who has not taken a public position on the measure -- if it gets on the ballot.
"If the Uhler initiative goes on the ballot and public employee unions have to fight for their right to participate in politics in California, that's going to be nuclear war," said Jim Hard, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1000.
Unions are preparing to reciprocate by backing initiatives that would lower prescription drug prices and partly re-regulate energy utilities, two measures Schwarzenegger vetoed last year. Their allies are planning to submit petitions on those measures in the next few days.
"If he's going to call a special election, let's give consumers the right to legislate for themselves what the governor refuses to do," said Art Pulaski, the chief of California's AFL-CIO.
As a direct response to the Uhler measure, the unions have also been readying an initiative designed to devastate corporate political influence in California by requiring stockholders to specifically authorize donations to candidates and campaigns. The unions will not be able to collect the necessary signatures in time to qualify for a fall special election -- the practical deadline is today -- but say they will place it on a ballot in one of the two scheduled elections in 2006.
