The News Tribune (Lite) - Does union’s election interest pass smell test?

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Section: Peter Callaghan

Does union’s election interest pass smell test?

PETER CALLAGHAN; THE NEWS TRIBUNE
State schools Superintendent Terry Bergeson thinks her opponents are cheating.

In a complaint filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission, Bergeson says a so-called independent expenditure campaign paid for by the Service Employees International Union is not at all independent from her main challenger.

The PDC is charged with sorting it out. Given its recent record, don’t hold your breath for a resolution.

But what is at least as interesting as the complaint itself is why the union cares enough about the Washington state school superintendent race to spend $200,000 promoting Randy Dorn and assailing Bergeson. That is more than either Bergeson or Dorn is spending in the campaign so far, and most of the cash came from the international office in Washington, D.C.

SEIU is a growing union with increasing political clout. It has led the charge to unionize previously marginalized workers such as custodians and home health care workers.

But it has not been involved in school politics or education issues. That changed in 2005 when the previously independent Public School Employees union affiliated with SEIU. The 27,000-member PSE union represents classified employees in 175 school districts in the state – secretaries, janitors, bus drivers, food workers.

The person credited with leading those school employees into the SEIU is Dorn, the PSE’s executive director.

So the obvious answer to the SEIU’s interest is loyalty. Dorn is a good soldier, part of the union family, who wants to become the state’s school superintendent. The international union based in D.C. wants to help.

But it’s still a lot of money – a $202,000 thank-you in a campaign where Dorn has raised $110,000 and Bergeson has raised $165,000.

And can SEIU really be considered independent from the campaign of a man who heads one of the union’s affiliates, whose campaign manager came from another SEIU local (though not one that donated to the independent expenditure campaign) and whose headquarters is housed in union offices in Auburn?

That doesn’t pass the smell test. But given the vagaries of campaign finance laws – Was there coordination? Were there conversations? Is there an association? – it might be considered lawfully independent. Again, that is up to the PDC and perhaps a court.

The Bergeson complaint raises another interesting – though tangential – issue: What is Citizens For Washington, the political action committee that is actually buying the radio and Internet ads with SEIU’s money? CFW’s officers have links to Gov. Chris Gregoire and to the state’s Indian tribes.

Scott Nelson, an Olympia lobbyist who is volunteering his time to advise Citizens For Washington, says the committee was created to work on other campaigns and issues, not Dorn’s. But it was asked to help with the SEIU effort between now and Tuesday’s primary. The campaign was designed by CFW chairman Tim Zenk, who managed Gregoire’s 2004 campaign, and CFW treasurer Mike Moran, a lobbyist whose client list includes the Samish Indian Nation.

Since the school’s job is nonpartisan, the race will end in the primary if a candidate gets a majority of the vote. If not, the two candidates with the most votes will face off in November.

“This PAC exists to further generally progressive causes,” Nelson said. The committee will spend the rest of the SEIU money to help Dorn until the primary, and then move on.

“They are on their own after the primary,” Nelson said.

Nelson did not deny that CFW might get involved in helping Gregoire, and that he expects to seek tribal contributions as part of the effort. But he said no decisions have been made and no money has been collected for other issues yet.

Despite the allegations made by Bergeson, Nelson said he thinks the group acted within the law.

“There’s nothing nefarious about this,” Nelson said.

Peter Callaghan: 253-597-8657

peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com

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