Ohio tea party leader: Issue 2 is about defunding unions and defeating Democrats

Ohio's Blog of Mass Destruction has a great catch: an email from a tea party leader explaining the real reasons to support the state's SB 5, which strips public workers of collective bargaining rights. And like Wisconsin State Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald's real reason for taking collective bargaining from Wisconsin workers, it's about politics, not the budget.

Tom Zawistowski, executive director of the Portage County (Ohio) TEA Party, writes in his email to members that:

So, let me be clear. Everyone else can have whatever motivations they want to support issue 2, but for the TEA Party/Patriot movement our number one goal is to de-fund the union leadership and thus their exclusive partners in the Democratic Party and take back control of our government.

And in case that left you in any doubt about his goals:

…they (Democrats) will not have the money to compete in Ohio next year. Barack Obama and Sherrod Brown will lose Ohio and be thrown out of office in 2012. The Governor and the Ohio Legislature will be emboldened and thus willing to introduce more conservative legislation like Workman's Comp reform, Right to Work, School Choice and much more…

Winning Issue 2 and having SB 5 become law would be a win-win-win-win for Zawistowski and Kasich and their allies. It would hurt individual nurses and school janitors and police dispatchers. It would hurt their unions. It would help Republicans win in Ohio in 2012. And it would "embolden" the already pretty bold governor and legislature to pass far-right bills they couldn't quite get it together to pass this year.

Vote no on Issue 2.