Disparaging Flyers Unsolicited

I’m a local, soon-to-be-retiring real estate broker. We live in Santa Barbara. In the last two weeks we’ve received several hard-core, right-wing flyers in the mail disparaging two Democratic candidates currently running for office. The flyers called the candidates names, had ugly imagery, and were credited at the bottom to the California Association of Realtors (CAR). California Realtors are required to be members of and pay dues to CAR. California real estate documents, such as the Residential Purchase Agreement, and the Residential Listing Agreement are provided to us by CAR and have the CAR name on them. My clients who have received this flyer and look at the docs I give them will see they both have the name CAR them. Being associated with hard-core, right-wing propaganda is not a plus for most of the Realtors of California.

CAR has a PAC that puts out political material, but they did not poll us Realtors as to how the funded by us PAC should behave, when they took our dues. It is disturbing and unfair that the required dues of all California Realtors are being used to promote hard core political propaganda, and that every real estate transaction in the state, if they want to or not, promotes a CAR that puts forth divisive, opinionated, material.

The CAR mission is devoted to protecting the interests of real estate, but in their slandering of Democrats, they have shown a strong disregard for the effects of climate change, which we know well here in Santa Barbara. The GOP has left the perils of climate change entirely to others to try and fix. CAR, if this is how you protect real estate, no thank you.

California is not known as being a red state, why then would CAR think it wise to promote right wing propaganda in this state on the backs of all Realtors? I feel that my dues have been misused against the common good, and common sense.