After 'rocky' start, revamped unions rev up political activity By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — In 2004, Ray Waldron and Jon Youngdahl worked hand in glove to run union political activities throughout Minnesota. Now they are on opposite sides of a stressful split-up that created legal obstacles to cooperation. "There was a rocky beginning," Youngdahl, executive director of the Minnesota Service Employees International Union, says of the exodus that shrank the AFL-CIO by 40% and led to a new labor federation called Change to Win. "We've gotten beyond some of the initial tensions. I can't say it's 100% like it was before."
Two years ago, Youngdahl was on loan from SEIU to the Minnesota AFL- CIO to run its statewide political program. Political activities are "a little bit clumsier" and slower now that there are two groups instead of one, says Waldron, president of the Minnesota AFL-CIO.
Waldron says coordinators for the two federations and their local unions are smoothing things out, and political interest is high. His 300,000 members agreed by an "overwhelming" vote to a dues increase of 25 cents each to hire six campaign workers, a first for the state AFL-CIO.
James Green, a labor historian at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, says the AFL-CIO has long coordinated its political work with the National Education Association, the independent, 2.8-million- member teachers union. He predicted the AFL-CIO and Change to Win will learn to do the same.
Local unions accustomed to joint campaign efforts have had "a very difficult year," Green says, but "it's possible that some of the worst downsides of the split will be avoided, and maybe some new energy will result."
Some Democrats, the prime beneficiaries of union money and voter- turnout drives, were apprehensive last summer as labor leaders exchanged bitter words and went their separate ways. Party strategists such as Geoffrey Garin and Doug Sosnik said the split could create difficulties.
Democrats had reasons to worry. Of the $61.5 million unions gave directly to candidates in 2004, Democrats received 87%, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Unions also accounted for big chunks of the vote in some states. In Pennsylvania, exit polls showed 30% of voters in the presidential race were union members or lived with a union member. Democrat John Kerry received 62% of their votes and won the state 51%-49%.
Despite the loss of members and their dues, the AFL-CIO plans record spending of $40 million this year to turn out voters. Gerald McEntee, head of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the AFL-CIO political effort, says the money is available because headquarters staff and operations were cut back.
Change to Win leaders said last summer that they would focus more on organizing and less on politics. Youngdahl says that was misinterpreted to mean that "we weren't going to spend money on politics. That just isn't the case." Member unions approved extra dues payments to finance political work this year, with emphasis on Senate and gubernatorial races in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Change to Win President Anna Burger says the group takes an "aggressive" political approach.
"Candidates have to support organizing rights" and offer plans to improve workers' lives to get Change to Win support, she says, adding the group plans to choose sides in some primaries and recruit its own candidates.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, who warned last year that divisions would weaken the labor movement, now says the two sides are discussing "the parameters of a national campaign" after "a very solid, united effort" last fall in Virginia, New Jersey and California.
As the AFL-CIO imploded, unions helped elect Democratic governors in Virginia and New Jersey.
In California, unions spent about $100 million to defeat several ballot initiatives in a special election called by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A dozen AFL-CIO, Change to Win and teachers unions formed a coalition to kill the measures. "I'm sure there was a lot of intrigue in the background, but it didn't affect our ability to operate," says Democratic consultant Gail Kaufman, the group's lead strategist.
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Unions rake in record cash for campaigns By Jill Lawrence, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — A year after six unions bolted from the AFL-CIO and formed their own federation, the two camps are raising record amounts of political money and seeking ways to do joint campaign work this fall. Conflicts over how to expand the union movement led the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Teamsters and four other unions to secede from the AFL-CIO. Along with the Carpenters union, which had already left, they formed a new, 6-million-member federation, Change to Win.
Between Jan. 1, 2005, and June 30, 2006, federal reports show, major unions in both groups raised more money than they did for the last non-presidential campaign in 2002:
• The main SEIU political action committee and five local SEIU PACs raised about $15 million to give to candidates, a 62% increase.
• The main PAC for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), part of the AFL-CIO, has raised $9.1 million, a 39% increase.
Nationally, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win are on track to spend considerably more than the $35 million the AFL-CIO spent in 2002 to register, educate and turn out union voters.
The AFL-CIO says it plans to spend $40 million this year on such efforts in 21 states. Change to Win plans a similar program and higher spending than 2002, but Chairwoman Anna Burger would not give a figure. The two groups are in talks to coordinate outreach to union voters.
While the AFL-CIO may have a "short-term loss of synergy," says William Miller, political director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, competition could strengthen unions just as it does businesses. "They will continue to be a formidable adversary," he says.
Records show the Chamber's PAC raised slightly more money — $151,000 compared with $123,000 — in the past 18 months than it did for the same period four years ago.
AFSCME President Gerald McEntee says workers are highly motivated for this year's campaigns, in part because the GOP-controlled Congress has not raised the minimum wage.
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Democrats' Allies Use Undisclosed Dollars to Target Republicans By Michael Forsythe and Kristin Jensen
July 21 (Bloomberg) -- A new group called Communities United to Strengthen America has opened 12 ``resource centers'' this year for the avowed purpose of educating citizens about issues such as health care and energy conservation.
It's probably no coincidence that all 12 are located in Republican- held congressional districts targeted by Democrats trying to recapture control of the House of Representatives in November's midterm elections.
Campaign-finance experts cite Communities United as an example of the type of nonprofit group that Democrats and their allies are creating to help their campaign, permitting unlimited and undisclosed donations from corporations, unions and wealthy individuals.
``It walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck,'' said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a Washington-based watchdog group. ``The IRS and FEC ought to find out if it is a duck,'' he said, referring to the Internal Revenue Service and Federal Election Commission, which determine whether Communities United should be classified as a so-called 501(c)(4) group, entitling it to tax-exempt status.
The chairman of Communities United is Gerald McEntee, 71, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union. The Washington-based union, with 1.4 million members, gives Democrats 97 percent of the donations it makes to political candidates.
Communities United's president, Larry Scanlon, is the union's political director, and the treasurer is Gail Stoltz, a former political director of the Democratic National Committee, said Communities United spokesman Harrison Schmitt.
Republican Pioneers
In creating such groups, Democratic supporters are following a path pioneered by Republicans. In the two-year 2002 election cycle, eight 501(c)(4) groups that supported Republicans took in more than $77 million in donations, almost twice as much as the Democratic Congressional Campaign committee, according to tax records.
During the 2004 election, Democratic supporters -- notably billionaire financier George Soros -- used so-called 527 groups to support favored candidates. Congress has threatened to restrict the 527s this year, prompting Democrats to look elsewhere for fund- raising vehicles.
While Soros hasn't given to Communities United, he has donated to groups under the ``Democracy Alliance'' umbrella, his spokesman Michael Vachon says. The Alliance directs donations to a list of Democratic-leaning research and advocacy groups.
Both 527s and 501(c)(4)s are named for sections of the U.S. tax code. Unlike the overtly political 527s, the latter groups don't have to disclose their donors.
IRS Rules
By law, the 501(c)(4) groups must spend less than half their budget on political activities. ``The only wild card in this equation is whether the IRS will become more aggressive,'' says Federal Election Commission Chairman Michael Toner, a Republican. ``Thus far, I haven't seen any indication that that is occurring.''
An IRS spokesman didn't return calls seeking comment.
``We have absolutely no relationship and no connection'' with Communities United, said Dag Vega, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee in Washington.
McEntee's union has given at least $5,000 through its political action committee to 11 of the 12 Democrats running for the U.S. House in the districts where the Communities United resource centers are located, according to FEC figures. The 11 candidates received $95,000 in all from AFSCME's PAC.
``Communities United was established to strengthen middle- class Americans, who are now being squeezed by rising costs and stagnant wages,'' McEntee said in a statement. ``Given AFSCME's work on behalf of the people who serve taxpayers, joining with others in supporting and participating in Communities United was a no-brainer.''
Competitive Races
Three of Communities United's centers are in the districts of Connecticut Republican Representatives Chris Shays, Nancy Johnson and Rob Simmons. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report, a Washington newsletter, ranks all three seats as competitive; by its reckoning, only about 10 percent of the 435 House seats are competitive.
In Shays's district, Communities United sent automated telephone messages to constituents urging them to demand that Shays ``stop acting on behalf of the special interests and start acting in the interests of seniors by extending'' the May 15 deadline for enrolling in the Medicare prescription drug program.
Shays, 60, who helped write a 2002 law limiting union and corporate money in politics, says Communities United should register with the FEC and disclose its backers.
``It doesn't pass the smell test,'' he says. ``This is a way to funnel, in my judgment, illegal campaign contributions to help the candidates of their choice, all Democrats.''
Other Nonprofit Groups
Communities United isn't the only such group aiding Democrats this year. The Washington-based Public Campaign Action Fund helped air television ads in the districts of Pennsylvania's Jim Gerlach, New York's Tom Reynolds and Ohio's Bob Ney. The ads focus on rising gas prices and the fund-raising help the three received from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay of Texas.
``Tom DeLay: Indicted for money-laundering, he's the face of big money political corruption, and DeLay's corruption is spreading,'' the ad reads. ``DeLay's PAC sent Congressman Jim Gerlach $30,000; big oil and gas interests gave $52,086 more, and then Congressman Gerlach voted with DeLay and big oil.''
``We're not electoral,'' says David Donnelly, Public Campaign's political director. ``We're a campaign-finance organization and want to make sure that the next Congress is more pro-reform than the previous Congress.''
Political Process
``If people want to speak up in the political process, that's fine, but they ought to identify who they are, where they get their funding,'' says Gerlach, 51.
Communities United has set up shop eight miles from Gerlach's campaign office in the western part of the district. Off a wooded lane within walking distance of grazing cows, the community resource center consists of a couple of rooms next to a hair salon. Visitors are greeted by a table of brochures on issues such as energy and President George W. Bush's budget.
The group's purpose is educating voters, says Kathy McEntee, 46, a regional director and Gerald McEntee's daughter.
``The main goal is basically to identify middle-class voters, community members'' and others ``and determine what their particular issues are,'' she says. ``We do a lot of canvassing. We provide them with information. A lot of people have said to us that the middle class has sort of been forgotten.''