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Saturday, February 07, 2009

MundiMuster! Investigate Obstructionist Republicans Who May Be Breaking California Law

[Courage Campaign]
California is broke. The state is printing IOUs -- or what we are calling "Arnoldbucks" -- instead of tax refund checks. Unemployment claims are not being processed. Now government offices are being closed and workers sent home without pay every other Friday.

Right-wing Republicans in the legislature are refusing to vote for a budget, unless Democrats agree to eliminate meal and rest breaks for workers and stop the fight against global warming.

And now the Republicans are proposing trading votes with Democrats to eliminate bedrock labor and environmental protections.

It may sound like politics as usual, but vote trading is against the law:
Section 86. Every Member of either house of the Legislature...who asks, receives, or agrees to receive, any bribe, upon any understanding that his or her official vote, opinion, judgment, or action shall be influenced thereby...or offers or promises to give, any official vote in consideration that another Member of the Legislature shall give this vote either upon the same or another question...is punishable by imprisonment in the state prison for two, three, or four years and, in cases in which no bribe has been actually received, by a restitution fine.

Sign th[is] letter now to Jerry Brown demanding an investigation:
Attorney General Jerry Brown,

There are persistent reports that Republicans in the legislature are offering their votes on an urgently needed state budget for votes on completely unrelated matters.

Section 86 of the California Penal Code explicitly prohibits this kind of vote-trading. But

Republicans, whose oath to anti-tax extremists supersedes their oath to the constitution, are ignoring the law. They are using the state's financial crisis to explicitly trade their votes for a budget that would crush the California dream.

We, the undersigned, join the California Labor Federation, Sierra Club California, State Building and Construction Trades Council and the Planning and Conservation League in urging you to immediately start an investigation into Republican vote trading and bring charges if appropriate.

With California facing an unprecedented crisis, now is the time to act.

Follow this link to sign.

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