Comcast pulled the teachers union anti-Meg Whitman ad because of what the union's lawyer wrote

SFGate: Politics Blog ^ | 9/15/10 | Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Political Writer

[SmithL]

s we told you about in the dead tree/SFGate Wednesday, Comcast pulled an ad produced by the California Teachers Union that was critical of GOP guv candidate Meg Whitman.

We hear that another teachers ad is being produced with "a slight modification." Until that arrives, here's some details from the backstory on why Comcast pulled the original ad. Sorry we didn't have enough tree Wednesday to tell you about it. It provides a window into some of the backstage maneuvering of political campaigns.

The drama started Friday, when Meg's attorney Thomas Hiltachk fired off a cease-and-desist letter to Comcast. It points out that the teachers ad says "Whitman says we should cut another $7 billion from our schools." The on-screen source for that claim is Meg's 46-page policy booklet -- you know, the one that some Dems deride as a "picture book."

Laugh if you must, but that "picture book" skewered the teachers union ad on Comcast. Comcast took note of the fact that Meg never explicitly said that "we should cut another $7 billion from our schools" in the book--- like the ad alleges she did.

Comcast asked the union to back up its claim. It received a letter from the union's attorney Karen Getman. And what Comcast spokesman Andrew Johnson said sealed theirdecision to pull the ad is what Getman wrote in the next-to-last paragraph of the letter:

"Of course Ms. Whitman does not explicitly state in her campaign materials that her plan for California will involve further cuts to our already-struggling schools. What politician would admit that $15 billion in cuts to state spending, if done on the same proportional basis as has been done throughout this budget crisis, will indeed result in at least another $7 billion cut to our schools?"

[Wooly]

The unions are getting desperate, given the atmosphere heading into the general election.
I urge all of you to take your cell phone or camera with you on election day, because I beleive there will be a lot of union thugs out near the polling places to try and intimadate the voters.

[Guyin4Os]

As a Californian, I wish they WOULD cut $7 billion out of education... better yet, end it as a state expenditure altogether. Big Education in California has become a bloated cash-cow.

Second, they need to dissolve the California Teachers Association. It has figured out how to bilk California taxpayers for billions without improving real education.

Third, I would like it to become real "public" education again, not government education. Take the entire responsibility out of state hands and return it to the local school districts where it belongs. That way all funds for the local schools would be voted on and approved by the voters in each district. The money would not go to the state at all. Then people in each district would decide for themselves how and to what level they would like to fund the education for their own children.

[RichInOC]

Bwah.

[MIchaelTArchangel]

Teachers unions are evil. Lawyers are bottom feeders. Teachers union lawyers are lower than whale crap on the bottom of the ocean ... even though most biologists know that whale crap floats.

[pepsionice]

It’s kinda amazing the buckets of money that the unions are burning through for the 2008 election, and this one. One has to wonder how much money is still left in the pot for 2012. My guess is that union dues for most folks will have to go up by 50 percent over the next year...to make up for losses.

[Westbrook]

> local school districts

“School Districts” are better characterized by the name Karl Marx gave them - “School Collectives”.

Don’t be fooled.

Communism fails whereever it’s applied.

Educate your own children, preferably in your own homes.

Make the sacrifices necessary. It will be worth it all.