November 4, 2011

Sarah Palin Touts Union Cred—Then Stumps for John Kasich’s Anti-Union Bill

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel

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With defenders of Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s anti-union bill trailing in the polls and getting badly outspent by labor-allied groups, they’ve enlisted the help of one of the biggest names in conservative politics: Sarah Palin.

Palin’s voice can be heard on a new robo-call urging Ohioans to vote yes this Tuesday on Issue 2, which would uphold Kasich’s anti-union bill, better known as SB 5. Kevin Holtsberry of Columbus, Ohio, tweeted that he’d received a Palin robo-call on Friday afternoon. In the call, Holtsberry told Mother Jones, Palin accused President Obama of bankrupting the country and claiming Issue 2 would control spending in Ohio. Three others tweeted that they’d received robo-calls Friday afternoon featuring Palin.

Palin also stumped for Kasich’s bill on her wildly popular Facebook page, which boasts more than 3.5 million fans. Palin burnishes her cred as “a proud former union member and the wife, daughter, and sister of union members,” and then tells Ohioans to back Kasich’s bill to ban public-worker strikes and curb collective bargaining for 350,000 public workers, among other reforms.

Here’s her full statement:

OHIO’S ISSUE 2

As a proud former union member and the wife, daughter, and sister of union members, I’m encouraging you to learn the facts about Issue 2 in Ohio. To the hard working, patriotic, selfless union brothers and sisters in Ohio and throughout our country: I believe that Issue 2 is needed reform. It will help restore fairness to Ohio taxpayers and help balance the budget.

As a former card-carrying IBEW sister married to a proud former Laborers, IBEW, and later USW member, I’m encouraging Ohioans to vote YES on Issue 2. Get the facts at www.BetterOhio.org.

Palin is only the latest celebrity, political or otherwise, to wade into Ohio’s union fight. Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have said they’re supporting voting yes on Issue 2, and former astronaut and US Sen. John Glenn appears in a recent ad for We Are Ohio, the union-funded group opposing Issue 2, urging Ohioans to vote no and repeal Kasich’s bill.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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