Labor, GOP promise battle over dues

Tuesday, Feb. 3, 1998 | 10:06 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- Organized labor is vowing an all-out fight against an initiative petition filed Monday to amend the Nevada Constitution to curtail union spending in political campaigns.

Chuck Muth of the Nevada Republican Party, which is behind the initiative, said it plans to spend $250,000 to get the issue qualified for the November ballot.

That's just funds that will go to gather the signatures for the petition. The budget hasn't been set for the media blitz that will be used to attempt to pass it in November.

If the initiative gets on the November ballot and passes the voters, it still must come back again in 2000 for ballot approval.

The proposed amendment would require a union member to give approval before part of his dues could be spent in political campaigns. The initiative stems in part from a major campaign in 1996 by the unions to defeat Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev.

Muth said it's not fair for dues from Republican union members to be targeted to beat GOP candidates. There also are a lot of Democrat union workers who don't want their dues used for politics.

The unions, Muth said, traditionally support Democratic candidates.

The GOP has hired National Voter Outreach, a Carson City firm, to gather the 46,764 signatures of registered voters needed to qualify the petition for the November ballot. The law requires the petition to have 10 percent of the total votes cast in the previous election and there must be 10 percent in 13 of Nevada's 17 counties.

Rick Arnold, head of Voter Outreach, said there "should be no problem at all" in gathering the signatures. He said he has been involved in initiative petitions since 1988 in Nevada and has never failed to get one qualified.

Arnold said his firm has gathered signatures for such constitutional amendments as term limits, no state personal income tax and the Gibbons' tax restraint plan.

The petition will be circulated in stores, shopping centers, libraries and public gatherings, according to Arnold.

Arnold said a similar measure is on the California ballot in June and a drive to get signatures in Oregon is under way.

Danny Thompson, political director of the Nevada AFL-CIO, said the petition is a "blatant attempt to shut us out of the process."

The unions oppose the initiative and will have a clear-cut path within the week on how to fight the GOP plan, Thompson said.

"Seventy-five percent of our members want us to be involved in the political process," Thompson said.

Thompson said he is upset the Republican Party is behind the petition because unions have supported GOP candidates in the past.

He pointed to Lt. Gov. Lonnie Hammargren, whom he said the unions backed in 1994. Hammargren has come out in favor of the petition.

Thompson said Nevada is a right-to-work state.

"No compulsory dues can be collected," he said. "This (petition) is about shutting organized labor up and stopping it from telling the people what the Republican Party is doing."

Muth said, however, the purpose of the petition is to level the playing field. He said he has to go out and solicit money for campaigns, yet labor can freely spend the dues of its members.

"They should have to raise money the same as we do," he said.

Despite it being a Republican Party effort, front-running GOP gubernatorial candidate Kenny Guinn, among others, does not endorse the petition.

Some Republican candidates live in districts which are home to heavily organized labor. Muth said "a lot are scared to death" of unions.

Thompson argued that the petition represents government intervention and unions operate by majority rule.