The Freedom Foundation on Wednesday filed a 45-day letter asking the Washington State Attorney General’s Office to investigate and file suit against labor unions for using their pro-Initiative 1501 political action committee to illegally move money around to at least one other PAC.
Initiative 1501, funded exclusively by the Service Employees International Union, was voted into law by the voters last month.
The complaint is the first court action taken by the Freedom Foundation in response to 1501, which purported to crack down on identity theft involving seniors but was, in fact, a cynical attempt to cripple the organization’s efforts to notify home-based healthcare providers that, under a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, they are no longer required to pay union dues or fees.
The complaint is based on a $47,500 transfer from SEIU’s pro-1501 PAC, the “Campaign to Prevent Fraud and Protect Seniors,” to the “Know Your Ballot PAC.”
In order to discourage mega-donors like SEIU from trying to skirt contribution limits by creating a network of dummy organizations all leading back to the same source, state campaign laws prevent political action committees from transferring money among themselves unless the donating PAC can show it was given money by at least 10 persons registered to vote in Washington.
In the case of the Campaign to Prevent Fraud and Protect Seniors, PDC records show its funding came from only three sources – SEIU 775 ($1.55 million), SEIU 925 ($200,000) and the 5th District Democrats ($50) – none of which is a registered voter.
“New election, same secretive tactics from the unions,” said Freedom Foundation Litigation Counsel David Dewhirst. “It’s bad enough they were allowed to manipulate the Initiative process to benefit their bottom line and keep workers in the dark about their rights. But on top of that, they continue to treat relatively straightforward campaign finance laws as optional guidelines.”
SEIU 775, SEIU 925 and the Washington State Labor Council were all forced to pay fines in the past year for misreporting campaign expenditures. The Freedom Foundation, an Olympia-based free-market think tank, initiated the complaint in each case.
The Freedom Foundation has been trying for two years to educate care providers in Washington and Oregon about a 2014 U.S. Supreme Court ruling (Harris v. Quinn) allowing them to opt out of all union participation. But in order to reach the workers, the organization first needs to obtain their contact information – which the courts have ruled is a matter of public record – from the Department of Social & Health Services (DSHS).
SEIU 775, the union representing 35,000 Medicaid-compensated caregivers in Washington, spent the past two years battling unsuccessfully in court to deny the Freedom Foundation access to the same mailing list it receives from the state every month.
When the Washington State Supreme Court rejected the union’s last frivolous appeal this past September, the union turned its attention to I-1501, which excluded SEIU-represented caregivers from the same public-disclosure laws that apply to every other government employee.
Even though virtually every newspaper in the state editorialized against I-1501, voters ultimately approved it.
Freedom Foundation lawyers have vowed to challenge the measure in court, noting a variety of constitutional defects– including its violation of the state’s Single-Subject Rule for ballot measures.
Tuesday’s complaint is just the first shot in the battle yet to come.
“I-1501 is unlawful and unconstitutional on its face,” Dewhirst said. “SEIU’s refusal to obey campaign finance restrictions is unsurprising, and fits with everything we know about the organization and the bosses who run it.”
The Freedom Foundation’s Complaint can be found here.
