Big Labor, Big
Business, Big Loophole
Judge’s ruling allows big organizations to spend
millions on politics
without complying with election laws.
OLYMPIA—On Thursday, August 26, Thurston County Superior
Court Judge W. T. McPhee rendered his decision in Evergreen Freedom Foundation’s case
against the Washington Education Association.* In his 22-page decision, the judge ruled
that the WEA was not a PAC (political action committee), stating that "the amount
spent [by an organization on politics] is meaningful only in relation to the total
expenditures of the organization." The judge found that participation in politics is
a standard activity of a public sector union, and that reporting union political
activities is unnecessary.
In reaction to the decision, EFF president Bob Williams said,
"This is a green light for big special interests. The judge’s ruling creates a
huge loophole for big labor and big business to avoid public disclosure of political
activities. This decision means Boeing with an estimated $58 billion in sales could spend
$2.3 billion for politics without triggering election laws. The political power-brokers
beat the citizens in this round, but we believe the principles of free and fair elections
will ultimately be upheld in a higher court."
When the campaign finance reform initiative 134 was proposed,
WEA fought it among the voters and before the Supreme Court. What the voters and the
Supreme Court denied the WEA, Judge McPhee gave them this week. The judge’s ruling
interpreting I-134, an initiative designed to limit the influence of big business and big
labor, is a primer for large organizations on how to conduct political activities with no
public accountability. It says to them:
- Unions can influence elections, work to defeat or pass
initiatives, defeat or pass levies, and work to defend the "status quo," without
telling the public, as long as its election activities further its mission statement.
- Unions can take member dues and spend the money on politics as
leaders choose, as long as the employees don’t know their paychecks are being raided
for politics.
- Unions can re-engineer their operations to be totally
political and can run campaigns right from union headquarters, as long as their actions
include informing and involving members.
Among the elements that the Judge declined to find
significant were admitted expenditures of nearly $700,000 on politics—most of it
unreported. (The WEA actually spent far more.) Other activities the Judge acknowledged and
dismissed were:
- Candidate tracking and coordination
- Voter tracking
- Participation in the Democratic Coordinated Campaign
- Voter polling
- Levy campaign support
- Voter ID
- Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) activities and phone banks
- Research by school district on citizen voting history
- Staff support to WEA-PAC
- Ongoing political communications to 65,000 members
- Volunteer recruitment for campaign activities
- Provision of yard signs & campaign paraphernalia to
members
- Assignment of 11 "field organizers" to organize
volunteers for the campaign
This ruling says to large special interests, "Don’t
bother merely contributing to campaigns—BE the campaign."
EFF’s work has already resulted in a $430,000 fine in
the suit brought by the Attorney General, as well as fines against the executive director
of the WEA and its top political operative. The Attorney General has also been fined for
not turning over the documents it obtained in its suit, and the WEA has been fined $15,000
for not turning over the political plan Judge McPhee initially described as a
"smoking gun."
Consider this: the WEA spent 50 percent more than the largest
PAC in the 1996 elections. But the day before the election, public records indicated that
the WEA had spent merely $208,500; after the elections, more than $900,000 in campaign
donations turned up in lobbyist reports.
If WEA is not a PAC, no organization is a PAC. Judge
McPhee’s decision means the public will have very little idea of who is contributing
to elections, who is receiving contributions, and in the end, who impacts our elections.
* State of Washington ex rel. Evergreen Freedom
Foundation, et al. v. Washington Education Association, et al., Case No. 97-2-01419-8
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