"Money well spent" says WEA of Gregoire
Posted by Scott Dilley - June 24, 2008In today’s Seattle Times, reporter Ralph Thomas documents the amount of tribal and labor union money given to Gov. Gregoire for the 2004 election recounts and some of the favors she has done for those groups since becoming governor.
Gregoire disputes the claim that she is being bought by special interests. “There was never a litmus test,” she said. “Anybody who wanted to get in that door, got in that door. And everyone who got in that door, got an absolute fair shake.”
One wonders whether everyone is getting a fair shake, given Gregoire’s comments last month at the WEA convention. Gregoire pointed out that having spent lavishly on education, she expected the union’s help: “This is a team sport that we're in.”
Gregoire might insist she was talking about education policy. But the WEA’s $25,000 for the recount, the $4,850 in hard money contributions they have given to Gregoire while she’s been in office, and the $200,000-plus they have given in soft money to Democrats over the past four years clearly raises the specter of political favoritism – not just a “fair shake.”
One example, overlooked by Thomas in his article, was HB 2079. Gregoire benefited the WEA in 2007 by signing this controversial bill, which circumvented a U.S. Supreme Court decision that went against the WEA. Ironically, Gregoire initiated the case when she was attorney general. Gregoire signed the bill over the objections of Attorney General Rob McKenna. For more information, click here, here, and here.
Another example includes Gregoire’s fundraising in 2006 for Citizens to Uphold the Constitution, a political committee formed to support certain candidates for state Supreme Court and funded heavily by SEIU, the WEA, WFSE, other labor unions, trial lawyers, and tribes. Here is a list of the contributors.
At least there’s no denying that the WEA is happy with the investment they made in 2004. If the governor does not think she is being bought, she needs to wise up and stop reciprocating with beneficial policies -– or at least stop taking money and end her parade of casuistry.
We welcome your comments on other ways the governor has advanced the causes of the interest groups from which she has accepted political money.
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