Crosby, Stills, Nash and Morello rage against Prop. 32
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Tom Morello joined veteran activist super-group Crosby, Stills & Nash in Los Angeles on Wednesday for a fundraiser to defeat Proposition 32.
The November ballot measure would make major changes to California’s campaign finance system, including banning the practice of political contribution by payroll deduction -- the primary method labor unions use to raise political cash. Unions have declared the initiative their top priority this year.
Morello, the former guitarist for Rage Against the Machine, told Rolling Stone on Wednesday that the measure ‘is another of the brushfire wars in this ongoing class warfare assault of the ruling class on working families.’ Supporters bill the initiative as an effort to eliminate special interest money in California politics.
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Rolling Stone reported that Morello and Crosby, Stills & Nash performed together on Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land Is Your Land,’ using the rarely sung line, ‘As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking/ Is this land made for you and me?’
Morello’s 89-year-old mother sung along with them by the microphone, the magazine reported.
Meanwhile, Proposition 32’s supporters got a boost of their own from Republican rainmaker, Charles Munger Jr., who wrote a $9.9-million check this week to a committee set up to support the measure. In all, the Stanford physicist has given nearly $20 million to the Small Business Action Committee PAC, which is also opposing Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax initiative, Proposition 30.
The group is running TV ads that describe Proposition 32 as ‘real, tough campaign reform that will finally cut the money ties between special interests and politicians.’
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-- Michael J. Mishak in Sacramento