The Wall Street Journal recently published an  article  analyzing the  actual  amount of spending through nontraditional campaigning routes that unions have learned to capitalize on, typically leading to the majority support of the industry’s political interests. The effectiveness of how unions lobby voters and politicians has gone somewhat unnoticed in the past due to the difficulty in tracking their total political expenditures. The reason it has been so hard to accurately track the amount of spending by unions is because the inconsistent nature of reporting standards across departments. Under the  Federal Election Committee  (FEC) guidelines, unions are only required to report direct federal and campaign spending donations. But under  Labor Department  reporting guidelines, unions are required to report a much larger array of political spending, ultimately painting a much clearer picture (see below). Teacher unions also report campaign spending under a variety of department guidelines, sometimes misguiding users of the official statements. Top organizations include the  American Federation of Teachers  and the  National Education Association , who spent $33.5 million and $45.89 million, respectively, in 2011 to further their political interests (see below). The Wall Street Journal  noted that, “The two unions typically give to advocacy groups that have been involved in various civil rights struggles and that they think will turn out at the polls”.  These groups have quietly expanded their influence over the last decade through various political strategies, reifying the need for an unbiased overhaul of the current governing bodies. The Labor Department documents show the total amount spent on non-traditional political campaigning, like sponsoring union events, is the large majority of the group’s efforts. As the chart below shows, union spending on political campaigns jumps significantly a month before the election. By rallying the support of members into action, they are able to impose numerous policy changes at the local, state, and federal level.   The time has come to improve of our current political campaign regulators in order to achieve a higher level of democracy in our current political system. Just as high net-worth individuals leverage power through donations, unions also leverage their power through members to impose political interests. Accurate records of the amounts spent, and donations received, towards  political lobbying  should be unbiased and reflect the true expenditures across all regulatory bodies. Taxpayers deserve access to a nonpartisan resource to track political influences. *Follow link for more on the  current campaign financing model
Posted by acareaga