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October 24, 2008 |
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WSLC
Reports Today
Updated
DAILY... Almost Every Day!™ by 9 a.m. Pacific
Links are functional at date
of posting, but sometimes expire.
WSLC Reports Today links to stories of interest to organized
labor;
some positive, some negative. The intention is to inform.
FRIDAY,
OCTOBER 24
Specter of "Dino Dollars"
shadows Rossi on campaign trail
In recent days, a group of union
activists have been shadowing Republican Dino Rossi on the campaign trail
with giant bags of cash handing out "Dino Dollars" to call
attention to an unprecedented late infusion of special-interest cash into
his campaign. It's that money that's paying for all
those misleading fear-mongering attack ads against Gov. Gregoire. Read
more.
▪ In the
Olympian -- Ruling
on BIAW suit may affect election -- A lawyer suing the BIAW over its
campaign finances has warned -- in a legal case alleging violations by
Republican Dino Rossi's biggest supporters -- that failing to bring to light
Rossi's and the BIAW's role in campaign financing before the general
election could be grounds for overturning the election. A King County judge
is expected to rule today on whether Rossi must give statements under oath
next week.
▪ In the Tacoma Weekly
-- Labor
group blast influx of "Dino Dollars" -- In
a series of demonstrations against Rossi, union advocates claim he is trying
to buy the election with millions of dollars in contributions from groups
they label as “extreme right-wing special interest groups.”
▪ In
today's News Tribune -- Rossi
honored by Farm Bureau -- Outside, protesters marched up and down the
sidewalk carrying signs and pushing a wheelbarrow full of “Dino Dollars”
to draw attention to the millions of dollars that special-interest groups
are spending on behalf of Rossi.
Boeing Machinists strike:
Day 49
A new round of mediated contract talks began Thursday
morning between the union and Boeing. No details from the meetings will be
released until this round of talks have concluded. The union remains
cautiously optimistic Boeing will negotiate fairly and address members'
issues. In the meantime, members are urged to keep the picket lines strong,
as the strike continues during these talks. Learn more
at www.iam751.org.
Also see how you can help
the strikers.
State
election news:
▪ In
today's Seattle P-I -- Darcy
Burner takes lead in latest poll -- Democrat
Darcy Burner has surged to the lead in her challenge to Republican Rep. Dave
Reichert, a SurveyUSA poll shows. The poll of 641 likely voters in the 8th
Congressional District shows Burner at 50% and Reichert at 46%.
▪
From AP -- Al
Gore to campaign in Wash. for Gregoire --
The former vice president is expected to speak
today to a crowd of about 1,500 at a Seattle fundraising event.
▪ In
today's Seattle Times -- Rossi
says minimum-wage attacks against him are misleading -- He insists he
only supports cutting it for teenagers, not for adults as
Gregoire's ad claim. (Also see our Oct.16 posting: Rossi's
false outrage, flip-flop over minimum wage issue.)
▪ In
today's Spokesman-Review -- I-985
called a tax grab -- Opponents say it would suck money away from Eastern
Washington to metropolitan Seattle.
▪ In
today's Oregonian -- Oregon
teachers, other unions wage costly war against ballot measures -- The
unions are focused on five measures authored by Bill Sizemore, including
proposals that would restrict union political fundraising, move teacher pay
to a performance-based system rather than seniority-based and reduce state
money for schools and services.
Presidential
election news:
▪ In
today's NY Times -- Barack
Obama for President (editorial) --
After nearly two years of a grueling and ugly campaign, Senator Barack Obama
of Illinois has proved that he is the right choice to be the 44th president
of the United States.
▪ In
today's Wash. Post -- As
an issue, taxes favor Obama -- For the first time in decades, Democrats
may have the upper hand in the debate over taxes. Analysts say only a small
fraction of small- business owners would see their taxes increase under
Obama's plan, and polls show that voters are beginning to accept that more
Americans would see their taxes cut under Obama's proposals.
▪ In
today's NY Times -- Polls
show Obama gaining among Bush voters -- He is showing surprising
strength among the political coalition that returned Bush to the White House
four years ago, a cross section of support that, if it continues, would
exceed that of Bill Clinton in 1992.
▪ In
today's LA Times -- Palin
appointed friends, donors to key posts in Alaska -- More than 100 jobs
went to campaign donors or their relatives, sometimes without apparent
regard to qualifications. Several donors got state-subsidized loans for
business ventures of dubious public value.
▪ From
BBC News -- Unions
battle for Obama -- Not long ago, Barack Obama seemed to have a problem
connecting with voters in America's industrial heartland. But now America's
unions -- one traditional bastion of blue collar America -- are pumped up
and ready to roll for Obama.
▪ In
today's Wall Street Journal -- Chamber
of Commerce irks Democrats with big push for GOP -- The nation's largest
business lobby has raised ire among Democratic leaders for pouring millions
into an advertising push to prevent the party from winning dominance in the
Senate next year.
Local
news:
▪ In
today's Aberdeen Daily World -- PUD
pulls out of Cosmopolis mill deal -- The
Evergreen Pulp Mill deal is dead.
The Grays Harbor PUD
announced it has discontinued exclusive negotiations with Evergreen Pulp to
purchase the Weyerhaeuser-owned mill’s powerhouse in Cosmopolis.
▪ In
today's Everett Herald -- Snohomish
County layoffs could go past 200 -- About 120 people who work throughout
county government could be told by the end of the work day today that their
jobs will be gone in January, and another 22 vacant jobs could also be cut.
▪ In
today's Seattle P-I -- Seattle
Times, employees reach labor agreements -- The agreements
with the PNW Newspaper Guild and CWA give 6% wage increases over two years.
Health care rates will increase for those with family coverage and decrease
for employees without dependents.
▪ In the
Longview Daily News -- Local
timber industry bracing for tough times -- Low
prices and low demand has prompted mills to curtail production and send
workers home, or lay them off.
▪ In
today's Tri-City Herald -- Last
of Hanford's K West fuel removed -- Workers
have completed removing fuel and fuel scraps from the K West Basin, meeting
an appointed deadline, DOE says.
National
news:
▪
In
today's Wash. Post -- Battle
intensifies over bill to expedite union organizing -- Organized
labor and business groups are facing off in an increasingly intense battle
over legislation that would make it easier to organize unions, as labor
seeks to bolster its dwindling ranks and propel its agenda for working
Americans. The Employee Free Choice Act -- which would
require employers to recognize unions once a majority of workers sign cards
of support -- would be perhaps the most significant change in federal labor
law in six decades.
▪ In
today's Wash. Post -- Greenspan
says he was wrong on Wall Street regulation -- Ya think?
▪ In
today's NY Times -- How
to take American health care from worst to first (op-ed
by baseball's Billy Beane, Newt Gingrich and John Kerry... "Together
again!") -- In the past decade, baseball has
experienced a data-driven information revolution. Numbers-crunchers now
routinely use statistics to put better teams on the field for less money.
Our overpriced, underperforming health care system needs a similar
revolution.
FRIDAY,
OCTOBER 24, 2008
Specter of "Dino Dollars" shadows Rossi on
campaign trail
Union activists remind Rossi backers that special
interests financing his campaign
In the hours before the Oct. 15 deadline for campaign contributions in the governor's race to be capped at $5,000, the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) and the Republican Governors Association (RGA) dumped some $7.5 million into Republican Dino Rossi's campaign. Rossi’s campaign has now received more than $13 million from special-interest groups. That’s more than Rossi and Gregoire combined spent in the 2004 election.
In recent days, a group of union activists have been shadowing Rossi on the campaign trail with giant bags of cash handing out "Dino Dollars" to call attention to this unprecedented infusion of cash into his campaign.
"These Dino Dollars will make sure that Rossi's supporters know who is
really financing
his campaign," said Benjamin Lawver, Political Director for the
Washington State Labor Council. "It's a lot of fun to shadow Rossi's
campaign, but it's also kind of scary to
think that right-wing special interests may succeed in buying this election if
he gets elected."
The BIAW, a builders' lobbying group, has singlehandedly pumped $7.25 million into ChangePAC, which has the sole purpose of getting Dino Rossi elected. That means the BIAW alone has spent about $2 million more than ALL of the unions, environmental groups and other Democratic constituency groups in Washington State COMBINED have spent on Evergreen Progress, a rival PAC that is supporting the re-election of Gov. Chris Gregoire.
The BIAW and RGA money is being spent on negative TV advertising blaming Gov. Gregoire for everything from the state of the national economy to unaccounted-for sexual predators.
The
RGA-financed negative ads
grossly distort Gregoire’s record. For example, those blaming her for
"unaccounted for" child molesters lurking around playgrounds, have
been decried by media pundits as inaccurate and "fear-mongering."
A Seattle
Post-Intelligencer analysis of state records found the number of such
sex offenders in Washington state has actually decreased 16% since Gregoire
took office, in part because of the increased funding she supported for
"face-to-face" sex offender monitoring.
Meanwhile, the BIAW has been charged with violating the state’s campaign finance laws. Attorney General Rob McKenna, a Republican, has charged the BIAW with illegally funneling money into ChangePAC in violation of campaign disclosure laws. But the outcome of that case will not be known until after the Nov. 4 election. The (Tacoma) News Tribune Oct. 7 editorial entitled "Why Rossi should repudiate the BIAW," said: "In a better world, narrow special-interest groups with truckloads of money on their hands wouldn’t be spending fortunes trying to shoe-horn their allies into high office."
Rossi has personally been implicated in the "BuilderGate" scandal. Another lawsuit charges Rossi with directly soliciting BIAW sub-groups to contribute to the BIAW’s political war chest, which is illegal since they are independent expenditures. Rossi says he wasn’t officially a candidate when the alleged 2007 solicitations occurred, so it can’t be illegal. He is trying to avoid deposition in the case until after the election.
The activists shadowing Rossi on the campaign trail want to make sure that his supporters know about all this. They delivered Dino Dollars at the Pierce County Elections Center in Tacoma on Tuesday. On Wednesday, they dogged Dino at the annual Farm Bureau Awards Dinner in Puyallup, and on Thursday they were outside Rossi's campaign headquarters in Redmond. Tonight, they will be outside Rossi’s rally in Olympia, and they'll be with him at campaign stops on Saturday in Everett and Bellingham.
For more information on others changes Republican Dino Rossi would bring to Washington, check out his voting record as a State Senator. His 6% voting record with the Washington State Labor Council ranks among the worst -- and most partisan -- of any state legislator during his 1997-2003 tenure in the State Senate.
Copyright ©
2008 -- Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO