In 2009, lawmakers enacted a law permitting a WEA affiliate to use the state list of public retirees to solicit them for funds. RCW 41.50.810 gives some private organizations “the right to request the department to assist in doing blind mailings to retirees twice each year.”

“WEA Retired” recently used this list to send a brash solicitation for money to the annoyance of a Freedom Foundation supporter who is a retired educator. He wrote:

“You guys must really must be under the skin of the teachers’ union. It sounds like you are threatening their crooked revenue sources. I have been retired and forgotten by them for 25 years – until now. Keep up the good work.”

WEA Retired is an organization affiliated with the WEA, but is not technically a union. The operators of this organization have taken on responsibilities including lobbying activities, raising money for WEA electioneering and attacking the Freedom Foundation.

The head of this organization is the same one who on television opposed changing pension policies when Freedom Foundation research uncovered that school employees who committed sex offenses against students were receiving pensions while in jail.

Nearly all lawmakers voted for Senate Bill 5238 – a law allowing private special interest groups to fundraise among pensioners and even to deduct from their pensions.

Could the Freedom Foundation or any other policy advocacy organization use the list of all pensioners for lobbying and fundraising?