Want to know who wields the most political clout in California? Look at the campaign fliers dropping in your mailbox, especially the fine print. Many fliers are funded by the candidate’s own committee or political party. But many others are funded by outside groups, generally pro-business for Republicans and pro-union for Democrats.
I’m registered Republican, but have gathered fliers from neighbors who are Democrats or independents in Irvine. We’re in the 47th Congressional District, with 35% Democratic registration, 35% Republican and 24% no party preference. It’s one of the top battleground districts for control of the House of Representatives, pitting Democratic state Sen. Dave Min against Scott Baugh, the Republican Assembly leader in the late 1990s and formerly head of the Orange County Republican Party.
A flier was sent out by the United Domestic Workers of America Action Fund to its members, many of whose pay comes from taxpayers. “Register to Vote Today,” it reads. It doesn’t recommend candidates, but promises, “More power for UDW members at the bargaining table…. Support those who support us.”
The UDW’s website boasts of its “more than 171,000 home care and family child care providers across the state of California.” According to Influence Watch, the UDW is “a left-of-center California labor union of home care workers affiliated with the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees.”
Not surprisingly, Baugh was attacked in a flier by the AFSCME Working Families Fund, which is based in Washington, D.C., not California. “Scott Baugh Is in Corporate America’s Corner, Not Ours,” it warns. “People First, NOT Corporate Cronies…. AGAINST laws that would punish corporations that withheld pay from workers.” For the latter, a footnote is provided in minuscule print: “Assembly Floor Vote, AB 633, 9/10/99.”
A bill from 25 years ago? Fortunately, the state’s online database of legislation starts in 1999. AB 633 tightened regulation on garment sweatshops. The opposition said it would kill jobs and current worker protections were adequate. It passed along party lines and Gov. Gray Davis signed it into law. It’s impossible to assess the bill’s actual effects because several more laws affecting garment workers have been passed in the ensuing 25 years, such as Senate Bill 62 from 2022, which bans being paid by piece.
In Irvine, we have a tough race for mayor among seven candidates. The two with the most flyers are Larry Agran, currently vice mayor and a fixture in city politics for more than three decades, and Councilmember Tammy Kim. I didn’t get any union flyers favoring Agran. But his own campaign hung a flier from my doorknob that included a little bag of six seeds and a promise “to plant another 200,000 seeds the next five years” to “help clean the air and cool our city.” Clever.
Irvine has its own cops. But it contracts fire protection from the OC Fire Authority. Kim received the benefit of two flyers to me from the Orange County Professional Firefighters Association Local 3631 PAC, reading: “Every 3 minutes, your OC firefighters respond to an emergency…. Tammy Kim will fight to get our first responders the necessary resources to keep our communities and Firefighters safe.” And fight for higher firefighter pay, perks and pensions.
Democratic Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris is running for re-election in the 73rd Assembly District against Republican Scotty Peotter, a local businessman. Cottie, as she likes to be called, from her own campaign sent out a large, two-page flier. Below the headline “We Support Cottie!” are festooned the shields of the Association of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, the California Association of Highway Patrolmen and the Professional Engineers in California Government.
Around the same time, Cottie sent me from her Assembly office, using my tax dollars, a flier inviting me to a “FREE Senior Scam Stopper” seminar. How nice of her to think of me now that I’m a senior. Also, how convenient to use what’s called “franking,” tax-paid mail by politicians. The flier features a union “bug,” meaning it was printed by a union shop.
If you want to know who controls California, look for the union label.
John Seiler is on the SCNG Editorial Board and blogs at: johnseiler.substack.com
