Washington State’s Union Bought Governor
Jun24Democrat Governor Christine Gregoire won the governorship of Washington State in 2004 under a cloud of suspicion and possible voter fraud. The election was very close and after a recount Gregoire’s Republican rival still had the win. But, the Democrats weren’t happy with the recount. They wanted a second and calls went out for giant donations to get it done.
To steal the governorship Gregoire’s biggest donors were unions. Teachers unions and labor unions donated big money. Once the miraculous second recount suddenly showed that the Democrats had won (by 129 votes), Gregoire settled into office.
And then the payback began with unions making out like fat cats.
As the Seattle Times reports…
Despite entering the job under a legal cloud, Gregoire got off to a fast start as governor. In her first year, she stuck by a campaign promise to restore funding for two voter-approved initiatives that give teachers annual cost-of-living raises and put money toward reducing class sizes.
She has since approved additional raises for teachers, created a new state Department of Early Learning and increased overall spending on education by more than $3 billion.
Another big donor, the SEIU, had some major setbacks in the Legislature this year, but the union has benefited from the Democrats’ efforts to increase human-services spending.
Gregoire and the Legislature raised reimbursement rates for nursing homes, money that helped SEIU win new contracts with 20 homes and add 2,000 new members. And they passed legislation that enabled the union to organize more than 10,000 child-care providers.
The Washington State Labor Council, which also donated $50,000 for the recount, won a major victory when Gregoire helped broker a compromise with business that undid a 2003 unemployment-insurance overhaul that had taken a big bite out of benefits for laid-off construction workers, farm laborers and other seasonal employees.
Of course, Gregoire thinks everyone she talks to is an idiot because she insists that there was no payback and that she was just doing her job.
Yeah, riiiight.
It wasn’t just the unions that are getting payback, of course. Trial lawyers and many other special interest groups with deep donor pockets have found that they’ve benefitted quite well under Gregoire as Governor. Go on over and see the Seattle Time’s report if you want to see graft at its most blatant.
But remember… there was no “litmus test” and no quid pro quo.
…again I say, yeah, riiiiight.
