Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Campaigns For GOP Ballot Measures Lure Voters With Phony Petition To “Lower Gas Prices”

From the Labor Council
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Campaigns For GOP Ballot Measures Lure Voters
With Phony Petition To “Lower Gas Prices”


New Video Footage of Bait-and-Switch Illustrates Latest Deceit
by Pension and Government Contractor Campaigns

SAN DIEGO – (Wednesday, July 6, 2011) – The “Just Say No, San Diego” Public Education Campaign released video today of Republican-controlled ballot measure campaigns using a phony petition to supposedly “lower gas prices” as a bait-and-switch in order to have voters sign ballot measures that eliminate a retirement safety net for city employees, abolish collective bargaining for construction workers and silence the voices of workers in politics.

A paid operative of the Republican ballot measure campaigns are seen luring voters to a booth with colorful posters stating “Lower Gas Prices” while representing that the ballot measure they are signing will put a question on the ballot that forces Congress to “drill here, drill now.” In fact, there is no such ballot measure registered for circulation at the Secretary of State’s office and no actual federal initiative-by-petition process.

After talking up the phony gas prices initiative, the signature gatherer asks the voter to sign the petition in order to put it on the ballot.

But, in fact, the paid signature gatherer flips the top page about gas prices over to have the voter sign a petition for one of the Republican ballot measures being circulated by government contractors, developers, corporate lobbyists and other far-right special interests.

“This is a very deceitful tactic, even by the low standards of the underground industry of paid signature gathering,” said Kyle Haverback, spokesman for the “Just Say No, San Diego” Public Education Campaign. “In the video, you can clearly see that the paid signature gatherer is preying on people’s desire to lower gasoline prices. It’s very cynical of these campaigns to employ a bait-and-switch where you tell the public they’re signing one thing when it’s really another.”

Watch the Video here!

Only when the paid signature gatherer is prompted in the video does she then describe that she is collecting signatures for other petitions besides the phony “gas prices” campaign. When describing those ballot measures, the paid signature gatherer makes several misleading and inaccurate statements about what the measures do.

The paid signature gatherer claims the pension ballot measure “better defines what they’re giving the employees” when the measure actually creates more uncertainty about the benefits city employees receive. When describing the government contracting ballot measure to stop collective bargaining agreements on public projects, the paid signature gatherer said the measure allows non-union firms the right to bid on city contracts, when in fact non-union firms already have the right, regardless of whether there’s a project labor agreement or not.

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