Ken Mettler, in The Bakersfield Californian-

"The Tea Party Patriots have a solution to create meaningful political reform in California. It is to reduce the disproportionate power of the public employee unions, which form the largest special interest in politics by far.

For example, the California Teachers Association alone has 300,000 members, each of whom are required to pay union dues of approximately $1,000. Out of these dues, approximately $300 goes for political campaigns -- a total of $90 million each year. Of course, the argument will be made that the public employees are not forced to make the contributions and can "opt-out," but the overwhelming pressure on the employee to "go along to get along" is palpable. If you have ever wondered why elected officials seem never seem to listen to the people, it's because they know the unions got them elected, not the average voter.

Elected officials rarely have the guts to stand up to the unions, because..."

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