Eyman Sets off Government's Immune System

Eyman Sets off Government's Immune System
Once again, the Evergreen Freedom Foundation has found the need to assume law enforcement duties that are being neglected by Washington state’s law enforcers. That’s because, for the second time in recent years, a renegade teacher’s union has managed to run afoul of Washington’s campaign finance laws. And, for the second time, the state has pursued the union’s transgressions as ploddingly and indifferently as possible.
Back in 2000, the National Education Association poured half a million dollars into the campaigns for the teacher backed initiatives 728 and 732. These initiatives ensured that Washington would hire lots of teachers and that these teachers would enjoy guaranteed pay raises every year. It’s a nice deal if you can get it, and they did get it. The problem is that, a few years prior, Washington’s citizenry voted that unions may not use their members’ dues for political campaigns.
It’s not all that easy to violate this particular law anymore. Ever since the state’s Public Disclosure Commission and the Attorney General’s office interpreted the law into near impotence, to be prosecuted under this law, it takes some seriously flagrant wrongdoing.
Unlike the recently passed and signed federal campaign finance law, Washington’s law is actually constitutional. It forbids unions from spending its members’ money on political campaigns without the individual member’s permission. The Washington State Attorney General’s office and the Public Disclosure Commission have manage to essentially emasculate the law by simply requiring that such of their members’ money as they wish to spend must simply be funneled through a slush fund beforehand. Apparently, the ham-handed NEA couldn’t even manage that subtlety.
Even so, it required a complaint from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation to get law enforcement off its fanny and into the game. In the end, the case ended up before the Public Disclosure Commission, which is empowered to punish violators with little more than a gentle slap on the wrist. The Evergreen Freedom Foundation could easily see what was coming and took the case out of the state’s hands by filing a lawsuit of their own.
This stands in stark contrast to the state Attorney General’s reaction to the supposed malfeasance of anti-tax crusader Tim Eyman. Whereas it once appeared that Eyman’s chronic initiative crusades were a manifestation of his Clintonesque narcissism, it has now come to light that he has also managed to skim a pretty good supplemental income from his initiative drives. Unsurprisingly, Attorney General Christine Gregoire sharpened her fangs and went straight for Eyman’s jugular.
Compare the state’s reactions to these two cases of campaign finance violation. Two years elapsed before Washington threatened the teachers’ union with a scolding. Before the foundation’s lawsuit, the NEA was threatened with a maximum fine of $2500 per violation. Even getting to that point required prodding from the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. That paltry fine is a pretty small price for the union to pay, considering what a rich harvest those two initiatives have yielded for the union. The teachers’ union initiatives virtually guaranteed that the first priority of the public education system will be the financial best interests of teachers.
On the other hand, it took only a couple of months for the Attorney General to train both barrels on Eyman. He too was originally threatened with only $2500 fines, but Gregoire demands $30,000 per violation.
It is virtually certain that the comparative urgency with which the state pursued these grievances had something to do with ideology. The party of government, otherwise known as the Democratic Party, casts a cold eye on people who deprive them of power or money. That’s what Tim Eyman does.
Dianne McDaniel, of the Washington State Labor Council, complains that Tim Eyman’s initiatives are, “a threat to our state and local governments." She blames Eyman for the closing of libraries and parks, and for unfilled potholes.
A similar accusation could be made against the teachers’ unions. Initiatives 728 and 732, sponsored by and perhaps illegally campaigned for by the NEA, have bled money from other programs, such as parks, libraries and road maintenance.
But, unions, and in particular, the teachers’ unions, share the same root system with the Democratic Party. The party of government will predictably hesitate to pursue a government union.
Tim Eyman, on the other hand, is of a competing species, who will inflame government’s immune system.