Tom Morello to rage against Prop. 32
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Tom Morello has found a new target to rage against: Proposition 32.
The former guitarist for Rage Against the Machine will join veteran activist super-group Crosby, Stills & Nash in Los Angeles next week to raise awareness and money to defeat the November ballot measure, which would make major changes to California’s campaign finance system.
The central provision of the initiative would eliminate political contributions by payroll deduction, the primary fundraising tool of unions. So far, the labor-backed opposition campaign has raised more than $41 million to defeat Proposition 32, airing TV and radio ads that paint the measure as a deceptive corporate power grab.
Morello, who performed in New York City last week to support the Occupy Wall Street movement, will open for Crosby, Stills & Nash. In a statement, the guitarist said businesses are backing Proposition 32 because they want to ‘tilt the playing field even more in their direction and away from real people.’
The event is set for Oct. 3 at the Nokia Theatre.
For its part, the ‘Yes on 32’ campaign has been using a celebrity of another kind to promote its cause: former state Sen. Gloria Romero.
Romero, a Democrat who tussled with some of the state’s largest labor unions during her tenure in Sacramento, has been pushing the ballot measure in interviews and Web ads.
“Having served in Sacramento, I’ve seen exactly how public employee unions, big corporations and their lobbyists use financial contributions to hold politicians hostage and set their own agenda,’ she said in a statement. ‘Prop. 32 will give voters their voice back and move our state toward a more democratic and representative government.”
ALSO:
Unions raise nearly $10 million to fight Prop. 32
Good-government groups call Proposition 32 deceptive
Bid to curb union spending gets big Democratic backer
-- Michael J. Mishak in Sacramento