Count one high-profile Democrat behind Proposition 32, the November ballot measure to change California's campaign finance law and limit how unions raise political cash.
Former Senate Majority Leader Gloria Romero announced this week that she's endorsing the measure.
"I've studied it carefully," said the Los Angeles Democrat during a telephone interview Monday. "This is as balanced a measure as we can achieve at this time."
Unions have blasted Proposition 32 as an effort by business interests to hobble organized labor's political influence.
It would eliminate unions' primary method of raising political spending money – payroll deductions.
Romero's tenure in the Legislature from 1998 to 2010 was marked by run-ins with labor. She is now the director of Democrats for Education Reform California, which promotes charter schools, a target for teachers unions.
Tuesday, Romero expanded on why she drew fire from those unions while in office, saying it runs deeper.
"The ire of the teachers union was less about charter schools than it was about my support for President Obama's Race to the Top program" linking teacher performance with student outcomes, she said in an email.
– Jon Ortiz
BY THE NUMBERS
California is home to about 2 million military veterans, more than any other state, but its proportion of veterans isn't particularly high, according to the Census Bureau. The state has about 12 percent of the nation's population and about 9 percent of its veterans. Texas and Florida have the nation's second-largest populations of veterans, 1.6 million each.
– Dan Walters
WORTH REPEATING
"I think it's of extraordinary importance that California lawmakers and the governor get ahead of the curve like other states have."
ASSEMBLYMAN JEFF GORELL, R-Camarillo, telling the Ventura County Star he's worried the state has lagged in fighting potential military base closures. He was in Washington, D.C., with Speaker John A. Pérez and other Assembly members to meet with officials about issues important to the state.
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