Sarah Palin Touts Union Cred—Then Stumps for John Kasich’s Anti-Union Bill

Joe Burbank/Orlando Sentinel

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


With defenders of Ohio Gov. John Kasich’s anti-union bill trailing in the polls and getting badly outspent by labor-allied groups, they’ve enlisted the help of one of the biggest names in conservative politics: Sarah Palin.

Palin’s voice can be heard on a new robo-call urging Ohioans to vote yes this Tuesday on Issue 2, which would uphold Kasich’s anti-union bill, better known as SB 5. Kevin Holtsberry of Columbus, Ohio, tweeted that he’d received a Palin robo-call on Friday afternoon. In the call, Holtsberry told Mother Jones, Palin accused President Obama of bankrupting the country and claiming Issue 2 would control spending in Ohio. Three others tweeted that they’d received robo-calls Friday afternoon featuring Palin.

Palin also stumped for Kasich’s bill on her wildly popular Facebook page, which boasts more than 3.5 million fans. Palin burnishes her cred as “a proud former union member and the wife, daughter, and sister of union members,” and then tells Ohioans to back Kasich’s bill to ban public-worker strikes and curb collective bargaining for 350,000 public workers, among other reforms.

Here’s her full statement:

OHIO’S ISSUE 2

As a proud former union member and the wife, daughter, and sister of union members, I’m encouraging you to learn the facts about Issue 2 in Ohio. To the hard working, patriotic, selfless union brothers and sisters in Ohio and throughout our country: I believe that Issue 2 is needed reform. It will help restore fairness to Ohio taxpayers and help balance the budget.

As a former card-carrying IBEW sister married to a proud former Laborers, IBEW, and later USW member, I’m encouraging Ohioans to vote YES on Issue 2. Get the facts at www.BetterOhio.org.

Palin is only the latest celebrity, political or otherwise, to wade into Ohio’s union fight. Republican presidential candidates Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney have said they’re supporting voting yes on Issue 2, and former astronaut and US Sen. John Glenn appears in a recent ad for We Are Ohio, the union-funded group opposing Issue 2, urging Ohioans to vote no and repeal Kasich’s bill.

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

The upshot? Mother Jones does journalism you don’t find elsewhere: in-depth, time-intensive, ahead-of-the-curve reporting on underreported beats. We operate on razor-thin margins in an unfathomably hard news business, and can’t afford to come up short on these online goals. And given everything, reporting like ours is vital right now.

If you can afford to part with a few bucks, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones with a much-needed year-end donation. And please do it now, while you’re thinking about it—with fewer people paying attention to the news like you are, we need everyone with us to get there.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate