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: Injustice in Seattle

Seattle Police Union May Be Skirting Campaign Finance Laws

By David Packman

Police unions have a very unique position in American politics due to the combination of power they can wield as a collective bargaining organization, as a privileged class of citizens imbued with the power to enforce the law, and as a powerful political force that can make or break an election with influential endorsements. In a sense, police unions are uniquely positioned to be the only union in the world that can actually control their own governments and can directly influence the laws that govern them. If only for these reasons alone, it's important to hold these powerful agents of political power to the rules that govern how they may participate in the electoral process.

However, the opposite usually holds true and police unions are given much more deference than other political organizations which often have less influence than police unions wield. Often, this is precisely because of the unique amount of political power they wield in the local and state-wide arena.

In 2008, the Seattle Times reported that the Seattle Police Officer's Guild had entered the political funding arena for the first time in the fall of 2007 when they formed the Seattle Police Officer's Guild Political Action Committee (SPOG PAC), which used a $14,638 war-chest to successfully get 2 out of 3 of it's own supported candidates elected during that 2007 election cycle. However, this wasn't the police union's first jump into the politics of campaign financing.

Prior to 2006, most police organizations and unions combined their fundraising efforts into a PAC called WACOPS (Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs) which raised $102,733 in 2004 and $98,450 in 2006. While not officially reporting anymore, the group is still active through a secondary PAC called WACOPPS which currently reports $112,151 for use in this year's election campaign, all reportedly originating from WACOPS. Prior to 2006, the Seattle Police Officer's Guild mostly took part in the WACOPS effort while it considered joining with other service unions to increase it's political clout.
Yet, in 2006, a new police PAC organization was formed called the Council of Metropolitan Police and Sheriffs (COMPAS), and they raised $145,834 in support of their various candidates for local and state-wide offices and members of the Seattle police union were encouraged to donate to COMPAS through the guild's own monthly newsletter.

According to the campaign report filing made by COMPAS to the Washington State Public Disclosure Committee, this new organization appeared to be another name for the guild's own new political action committee as it was registered to the same Seattle address as the police guild, had members of the union listed as executive officers for the PAC, and had it's contact listed under a Seattle Police Guild's email address. All of the COMPAS PAC's reported funding came entirely from two groups, the Seattle Police Officer's Guild and the King County Police Officer's Guild PAC.

Then, in 2007, the police guild created another new PAC called the SPOG PAC and filed under reduced campaign financial disclosure laws that are available to small organizations that don't raise much money. This year the SPOG PAC is still actively engaged in political fund-raising efforts in addition to their endorsement activities... but who do they endorse? How do they spend the $30,358 they claim to have raised so far this year? Who do they spend this money on?

These are pretty pertinent questions considering the incredibly close race between the incumbent Democratic Governor of Washington State, Christine Gregoire, and the police union-sponsored Republican candidate Dino Rossi, who's campaign has recently been under scrutiny for accepting possibly illicit contributions from another PAC. But, we can't find out the answers to these questions...

Why?

While the COMPAS PAC did file as a PAC under full disclosure rules, the SPOG PAC registered it's PAC under the Washington State's Public Disclosure Commission's "Mini-Reporting" rules which allow smaller PACs to follow less stringent reporting rules than regular PACs when they raise no more than $5,000 an election cycle and accept no more than $500 from any single contributor. Other PACs, like the King County Police Officer's Guild who raised only $5,746 this year report their income sources and expenditures.

Of course, if you're scratching your head and thinking that they should have to follow the more stringent laws since they earn more than the limit, you're right, they should... but they don't, and they haven't been called on it. But Seattle's police union is not the only one that's been on the wrong side of campaign finance regulations recently.

A Tallahassee Florida police union is in trouble for supposedly spending over $44,000 of possible charitable donations in a Leon County Commissioner election campaign and has raised concerns that it's acting as a front for other organizations to skirt campaign finance limits by donating to police-sponsored campaign mailer and radio endorsement drives.

Police unions have an incredible reserve of political power at their disposal and many methods that they can use to influence the outcome of any election and, as a result, the laws that govern their behavior. Due to this enhanced capability to influence the outcome of elections and the increased power entrusted to them that can only be held in check by elected officials, they should be subject to more campaign oversight and regulations, not less.

Full post as published by Injustice in Seattle on October 20, 2008 (boomark / email).