Outsiders’ Money in 2014 Election

Jami Lund
October 3, 2014

Much has been written about California billionaire Tom Steyer dropping $1 million into Washington elections to manipulate the results.

But quietly and without public outcry, another out-of-state special interest dropped $1 million to influence the election, the state budget and education spending priorities.

The Washington, D.C.-based National Education Association (NEA) union has donated $1 million to pass Initiative 1351.

The initiative would require the state to add 25,324 full-time employees to the school system, and at least 7,500 of these would pay required NEA dues of $182 each year.

This means the NEA—a private enterprise in the workplace representation industry—is attempting to buy a state budget and cash flow for itself. And with good reason. If the ballot measure succeeds, the NEA will recoup its investment within 10 months thanks to the increase in dues revenue.

The only other donors to this initiative are private organizations that collect workplace-representation dues money as their primary enterprise. The Washington Education Association has provided $1.6 million, and the Service Employees International Union has provided $125,000 for a total of almost $3 million.

So far.

All these donors stand to profit immensely from hijacking the state budgeting process to serve their own enterprises” financial interests.

- Education

Jami Lund

Senior Policy Analyst

Jami Lund is the Freedom Foundation’s Senior Policy Analyst. From 2004 to 2011, he developed legislative policy as a research analyst for the Washington House Republican Caucus. Prior to that he worked for the Freedom Foundation as the Project Manager for the Teachers Paycheck Protection project, shepherding the development of the Foundation’s landmark U.S. Supreme Court case to protect teacher rights. Jami is an accomplished speaker and researcher, one of Washington state’s top scholars on education policy and finance.