Last year, California State Senator George Runner fought against a plan to provide every Californian with health coverage — legislation that threatened the profits of his wealthy allies in the insurance industry.1
Now his friends, including the California Association of Health Underwriters (CAHU), are bankrolling Runner’s push for a disastrous new ballot initiative that moves money from public schools and hospitals to build more prisons. Runner’s plan singles out poor people and people of color for increased scrutiny and punishment, while pushing the state’s already strained budget closer to bankruptcy.
We can defeat this initiative by forcing his corporate backers to drain the money used to promote it. CAHU’s board votes Monday on whether to continue funding the initiative, and we can influence their decision. Will you join us in demanding that CAHU stop funding the Runner Initiative?
http://colorofchange.org/runner/
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Berkeley City Council, Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, and Rep. Barbara Lee all oppose the Runner Initiative.2 Instead of investing in community-based solutions to crime and violence, the initiative relies on failed polices for “public safety” that have disproportionately affected young people of color and increased the level of racial profiling in their communities.
The Runner initiative targets poor people, forcing recipients of public housing subsidies to submit to annual criminal background checks in order to keep their subsidies.3 It also puts young people in trouble on a fast track for adult incarceration — it mandates that any person over 14 years old convicted of a “gang-related” felony is unfit for trial in a juvenile court or housing in a youth prison.4
This is terrible public policy by any measure, but wealthy conservatives and groups that profit from the prison industry have thrown money at George Runner to help get it on the ballot. 5 The biggest contributor, the California Association of Health Underwriters (CAHU) PAC has given $35,000 to the Runner Initiative campaign — far more than they would be able to give to Sen. Runner directly. It’s a sickening “thank-you” for standing up for insurance company profits and against healthcare for all Californians.6
Organizers working on the issue have asked CAHU to withdraw their funding for the Runner Initiative, but they refused. Now it’s time to turn on the public pressure — if CAHU and other potential funders know that they’ll be held accountable by California citizens for supporting this misguided political stunt, they’ll be less likely to finance the campaign.
Will you call on CAHU to take back their money and withdraw their support?
http://colorofchange.org/runner/
— James, Gabriel, Clarissa, Andre, and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
May 15th, 2008
References:
1. Project Vote Smart, SB 840 – California Universal Healthcare Agency
http://www.votesmart.org/issue_keyvote_detail.php?cs_id=14056&can_id=9706
2. Defeat the Runner Initiative Website
http://www.defeatrunner.org
3. Runner Initiative summary
http://www.ellabakercenter.org/downloads/runner/runner_summary.pdf
4. “Initiative critic sees racial bias,” Sacramento Bee, November 4, 2007
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/471010.html
5. “Initiative sponsor in spotlight”, LA Times, December 25, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-me-nicholas25dec25,1,1689098.story
6. “CAHU reports shows flaws in single-payer health plan”, Businesswire, May 12, 2006
http://tinyurl.com/4jupz8