Bradley Tusk of @tuskventures says unions in California have so much money and power that they can effectively control politicians: "If you think about why in California there are unions like SEIU, and the teachers have so much power in Sacramento, it's because they have so much money that they can threaten any given politician and say, 'if you don't do what we want, we're going to spend $1 million or $5 million against you in the next election." "Everybody backs down because winning the next election is more important to them than any given policy or any given issue."