A year after he took the top job in 2019, the president of one of California’s largest and most powerful unions said in a newsletter that he wanted to be “the 800 pound gorilla” in Sacramento politics.
Since then, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, the union known as CCPOA representing 26,000 state prison guards, has spent and spent, in a way it never did before. Its biggest recipient: Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has taken $2.9 million from the union since he was elected governor.
That’s 31% of all political spending by the union since 2001.
The union under President Glen Stailey gave $1.75 million to Newsom’s anti-recall campaign in 2021 – the largest single contribution to that effort – and another $1 million to support Proposition 1, Newsom’s treatment and housing plan for people experiencing serious mental illness, which passed by the narrowest of margins this year.
Prison guard Union. Man that’s a depressing fucking phrase isn’t it. I mean police unions alone are disgusting, but this is even another level. I guess it’s just two ends of the same nightstick. One Union to dismantle and Destroy real unions, the other Union to imprison those people who are in actual unions.