Is WEA a Political Action Committee?

Judge gives go-ahead for investigation of teachers union political involvement

The right of Washington voters to know who contributes to political campaigns has been threatened by a recent court decision, according to officials at the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, an Olympia-based public policy research group.

Furthermore, under the Thurston County Superior Court decisions released July 7, unions will be allowed to use members’ mandatory dues when making donations to political action committees.

"The voters will never entirely know who financed this fall’s elections," said Lynn Harsh, executive director of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation and former school teacher. "Nor will union members have the right to choose whether or not to contribute to the union’s politics. What this means is that teachers and all other union members will be forced to support candidates and issues through their required dues."

The three decisions issued by Thurston County Superior Court Judge William Thomas McPhee are the result of lawsuits filed by EFF regarding campaign finance violations by the Washington Education Association. The decisions were based on oral arguments held May 1 on whether the WEA’s use of general dues for politics violates state law requiring the union to first obtain each member’s permission before making PAC donations.

But the court decision also denied the WEA claim that the union is not a political action committee.

Judge McPhee said that EFF, which has maintained the WEA itself is a political action committee, will be allowed to attempt to prove that WEA is a PAC. The judge’s decision affirms that a union is a political action committee if it holds politics as one of its primary functions.

"This is a notable victory," said EFF President Bob Williams. "We believe that the WEA is not just a teachers’ union but a highly political organization which should disclose its campaign expenditures to the public. We think it is also noteworthy that more than 85 percent of WEA members refuse to donate to the WEA political action committee, which makes us wonder how the largest political force in this state gets all of its political money."

EFF officials said they are concerned that the July 2 decision to allow the practice of transferring money collected as dues into PAC funds contradicts the intent of the 1992 voter-passed "payroll protection" initiative. Initiative 134 restricted unions to using member’s money for political purposes only when they had that member’s annual written permission.

EFF President Bob Williams said that his organization was "obviously disappointed" with the court’s decision but looks forward to the opportunity to examine WEA’s history of political spending. Williams added that unfortunately the court decision will not rule on whether WEA is a political action committee until June 1999, at the earliest.

"It delays justice," he said.

If the court finds that WEA is a political action committee, then all member dues will be protected under the 1992 payroll-protection law.

Williams said the court’s decision is confusing to voters who thought Initiative 134 would protect the public’s right to elections that are funded only by those who have an expressed interest in the candidate or issue at hand.

"If you have a PAC, you need to get permission to take money from someone’s paycheck," EFF’s Williams said. "But if you’re not a PAC, you can take payroll-deducted union dues and use them for politics. As long as you take union dues and transfer them into a PAC, you don’t have to get any member’s permission to spend their money on politics. This completely defeats the purpose of Initiative 134."

Contact: Marsha Richards, Communications Director, (360) 956-3482

Evergreen Freedom Foundation P.O. Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507 Phone: (360) 956-3482, Fax: (360) 352-1874 Email: effwa@effwa.org