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The people have spoken

AFT-backed candidates and positions rolled to victory in the marquee matchups that shaped the November 2005 elections. Observers are now sorting out the long-term implications of these results, but two things are certain: It wasn’t politics as usual and it didn’t happen by accident.

AFT activists played a critical role in helping secure wall-to-wall victories in key gubernatorial contests and in a widely watched special election in California.

No victory was more hard-fought than in California, where members of the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) joined other labor members and citizens across the state in turning back Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s costly and unprovoked attack on public employee union members. Californians turned the “Kindergarten Cop” into the Kindergarten Flop by shooting down Schwarzenegger-backed propositions to weaken teacher tenure, bypass voter-approved school funding guarantees, and cripple the ability of members to participate in the political process through their unions.

The vote in California capped almost a year of political action by the CFT, working in cooperation with other labor unions. That activism paid off on other measures as well, when the voters labor turned out also passed community college bond measures for the San Francisco Community College District ($246 million) and the San Mateo Community College District ($468 million).

“Our members heard from us, agreed with us and turned out in incredible numbers,” says CFT president Mary Bergan, also an AFT vice president. “It is definitely our intention to keep this structure in place and to build on it as we move into the governor’s race” in 2006.

AFT activism also helped make the difference in the Virginia governor’s race, where Democratic Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine defeated state Attorney General Jerry Kilgore despite a last-ditch stump speech for the challenger by President Bush.

The most bruising contest took place in New Jersey, where Democrat Jon S. Corzine prevailed in his gubernatorial bid despite a barrage of personal attacks from GOP challenger Doug Forrester. Union members across the state participated in membership meetings, literature drops and other efforts to highlight Corzine’s 100 percent AFT voting record as a U.S. senator. They helped deflect attacks against Corzine that were only intended to distract voters from the issues. It didn’t work, and the Democrat came away with a double-digit victory.

“When it came to things like sensible property tax reduction, Jon Corzine was more issue-oriented and substantive than Forrester,” says Nick Yovnello, president of the Council of New Jersey State College Locals/AFT.

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Time-out on TABOR

Colorado voters regained their fiscal sanity this November when they voted for Referendum C—a five-year suspension of the so-called Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Because the anti-public services law has served as a model for legislation introduced in 20 states this year, the vote sends a strong signal to to TABOR zealots to stand down.

The passage of Referendum C marks an enormous victory for labor, higher education, nonprofits and even some businesses that worked for the suspension, but especially for the -Colorado Federation of Public Employees, which has been trumpeting the -dangers of this model of tax “reform” for years.

Passed in 1992, TABOR puts tight restrictions on spending growth and automatic caps in place during times of economic downturn. A most pernicious feature of TABOR came into play during the state recession of 2001. When state revenues dropped by 16 percent, the baseline for future state spending also fell. Due to TABOR, which also requires voter approval of any new tax or tax-rate increase, the state has cut its spending by more than $1 billion since then.

As we have seen nationwide during recessions, first on the chopping block is higher education. In Colorado, colleges have taken a 20 percent hit since 2000. But that’s nothing: Had voters not voted for Referendum C, state Sen. Ken -Gordon told National Public Radio that “we would have been the first state to defund higher education,” with a budget for universities at zero within the decade.

By passing Referendum C, Colorado voters have given up an average rebate of $491 spread out over the next five years. They’ve said they believe in government enough to invest their 3.7 billion tax dollars in vital public services. This is a message other states contemplating TABOR bills should take to heart.

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