[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 66 (Thursday, May 21, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H3632-H3633]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                PROPOSITION 226 BAD FOR WORKING FAMILIES

  (Mr. SHERMAN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, I spent over 20 years working for genuine 
campaign finance reform. Nothing does

[[Page H3633]]

that effort more harm than the mutant and perverted effort at campaign 
finance reform symbolized by Proposition 226.
  In California we spend too much money on campaigns, but at least 
often, that money is balanced, and often, the interests of corporations 
are well represented, but the interests of working men and women are 
represented by organized labor. We need to hear from both sides in 
California campaigns.
  Unfortunately, Proposition 226 is intellectually dishonest. It says 
that the money of labor union members cannot be spent by labor leaders 
on political efforts, but at the same time, it welcomes corporate 
money, money that belongs to shareholders, to be spent on politics by 
corporate management. What it does is it gives us a lopsided input into 
California politics.
  Mr. Speaker, in the last election we in California raised the minimum 
wage. We did so because of the input of organized labor and working men 
and women. I urge Californians to join with the Sierra Club and the 
League of Women Voters in opposing Proposition 226.

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