Finally, the last of the conservative measures! Measure 64 shows that Bill Sizemore wants revenge on the unions that successfully identified him as a racketeer. Again using crowd-pleasing language, it purports to prohibit using a “public resource” for a “political purpose” and levies double damages for doing so. Now, who could oppose such a benign statement of government neutrality?

As with all conservative measures, the devil is in the details. “Public resource” is defined as “public money, public employee time … public buildings, equipment, and supplies.” “Political purpose” includes any money used as a contribution to candidates, political committees, or referendum efforts; including in-kind, pass-through, and independent expenditures. Since conservatives often make their money lobbying, lobbying is expressly exempted from the ban. So, what does it prohibit? Here’s a non-exclusive list:
1) Union meetings in any public facility, regardless of wehther the union paid for the space;
2) Rental of public buildings for any political purpose, broadly defined;
3) Deduction of union dues from public employee paychecks, even if approved by the employee; and
4) The use of public employee union funds for virtually any political purpose.

The net effect of the Measure would be to give private corporate interests a huge advantage in state and local government. It would effectively prohibit public employee unions from participating effectively in the political process. Can you spell V-E-N-D-E-T-T-A? Bill Sizemore can. He claims that the signature challenge made by the unions was one. Whom to trust? The racketeer or Oregon’s teachers, firemen, policemen, and other respected public employee unions? Such a tough decision!

Two things you should know about this one. First, this idea has failed twice before. Second, Democracy Direct, the company hired to collect the signatures allegedly did so with substantial irregularities, like allegedly forging many of the signatures. However, they did so before the new stringent signature verification requirements came into effect on January 1, 2008.

As always, the views expressed here are my personal opinions and do not necessarily represent those of my employer.