Word: prop
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...there is still Prop. 227, the anti-bilingual education initiative, which G.O.P. strategists fear could spoil all their hard work. At the state party's semiannual convention last September, Schroeder tried frantically to keep delegates from endorsing it but was overruled by the rank and file. Some dismiss the chairman's fears that the campaign against bilingual education will spawn a Prop. 187-style backlash. They point to polls showing that a majority of Latinos actually support the initiative. But Latino political analysts warn that one thing could still turn their community against the measure: a close association with...
...individual union households, the sums involved are small. The 285,000 members of the California Teachers Association, for instance, are each assessed just $32 a year for political uses. But that adds up. Two years ago, the C.T.A. contributed $2 million to California candidates and parties. If Prop. 226 eventually deflates union financial power, it could remake the political map of California: it could affect races for the state legislature that will control the crucial reapportionment of congressional districts following the Census...
...just California is at stake. In the 1996 election, the AFL-CIO spent $35 million nationally, most of it in ways that favored Democrats. Now the G.O.P., which tried and failed two years ago to get a bill nearly identical to Prop. 226 through Congress, is hoping that 226 will propel the dues-permission idea across the U.S. At least eight states are considering the same kind of ballot measure. Supporters of 226 say it's a fairness issue. Why should union members have to finance campaigns for candidates or ideas that the workers may not support? In recent years...
...voucher experiment in Indianapolis. Together they provided most of the financing, nearly half a million dollars, for the petition drive that put 226 on the ballot. Then California Governor Pete Wilson signed on. For Wilson, who as mayor of San Diego regularly battled public-employee unions in the 1970s, Prop. 226 also provided the satisfaction of payback to the teachers' union. Over the years, the C.T.A. has squared off against him on school vouchers, statewide-testing standards and class-size reduction. "The most urgent need for 226 was to combat the ability of the teachers' union to kill education reform...
...been a prominent donor to the 226 effort, California businesses have been staying out of this fight. To make sure they do, labor has threatened to introduce counter-initiatives that could negatively affect the tax status of corporations that make political contributions. And by some interpretations, Prop. 226 could be used to require corporations to get their stockholders' permission before making political contributions...