Arnold publicly endorses union hating initiative

I figured this was a matter of time as Arnold hopes to buoy himself with something even mildly popular on the fall initiative ballot:

Turning up the heat in his ongoing battle with public employee unions, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger officially endorsed a ballot measure Saturday that would require those unions to seek written permission from members before using dues money for political purposes.

Democrats, the principal beneficiaries of labor union contributions, have viewed the measure as a virtual declaration of war on their political power in the state.

Addressing an enthusiastic luncheon crowd at the state Republican Party convention, Schwarzenegger announced his support for the measure dubbed "Paycheck Protection," which will appear on the ballot as Proposition 75. The initiative was placed on the ballot and funded by close advisers of the governor but had not formally been part of his "year of reform" agenda until Saturday's endorsement.

Others in the state see the opposite effect:

"We're glad he's endorsing it, he'll be able to drag that one down like the other ones," [Democratic strategist Roger] Salazar said. The voters are getting tired of his act. All they see from this guy is theatrics, photo ops, and they haven't seen anything of substance. None of these issues deal with real substantive reform."

If union members have a problem with the way their money is being spent, then they should take it up with the union leaders and work for reform from within. The last time I checked, unions still operated on a majority rule of it's members. Why it should be up to non union members to suggest what be done with their money is beyond me.

And, of course, if current union members don't want their money spent on political campaigns, they can already opt out of it. So the only thing being served by this initiative is Republican wishes and Arnold's dislike for unions.