Rob Reiner Joins Teachers, Nurses, Firefighters in Condemning Governor's Initiatives and Leading the Charge to Get Out The Vote

Rob Reiner Joins Teachers, Nurses, Firefighters in Condemning Governor's Initiatives and Leading the Charge to Get Out The Vote

Contact: Mike Myslinski 408-921-5769

November 7, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OAKLAND – To strong applause from community volunteers, children's advocate and filmmaker Rob Reiner joined teachers, nurses, firefighters and other Alliance For A Better California members today in condemning the governor's political agenda and urging the public to reject his Propositions 74, 75, 76 and 77 at the polls on Tuesday.

"People have to understand what's at stake here and we have to make sure we get them out to vote tomorrow," Reiner told a packed labor hall of Alliance phone-banking volunteers at the offices of the Alameda County Central Labor Council. The governor "shouldn't be divisive like this. I think he's getting some bad advice. To bring the state together, you don't attack nurses and firefighters and teachers and police."

Reiner singled out the governor-supported "paycheck deception" initiative, Prop. 75, for its hidden goal of silencing the political voices of working people in the state. Other speakers blasted the governor's other special election ballot schemes.

"Prop. 74 is disguised as education reform and would not put one new textbook into a classroom," said California Teachers Association Secretary-Treasurer Dean Vogel of the governor's ballot attack on teachers for criticizing his broken promises to our public schools. "This is a misguided, unnecessary proposition. This is the 'get teachers and pay them back' initiative."

The 335,000-member CTA announced today that its statewide phone-banking campaign against the governor's propositions had surpassed reaching more than 1 million voters.

With flawed Proposition 76, "the governor wants to make himself king and give himself more power than anyone else in government," said Lou Paulson, president of the California Professional Firefighters. "It would affect police, fire, public works and everything at the local level."

Reiner took time today to join volunteers in calling many Bay Area voters as part of a statewide final push by the Alliance. The Alliance For A Better California is a coalition of 2.5 million teachers, firefighters, nurses, police and community members united against the governor's ballot initiatives.

For more information about the Alliance, go to www.betterca.com.