OLYMPIA, WA – A powerful statewide labor union was fined $6,000 on Thursday for failing to report more than $430,000 in contributions to candidates and political committees days ahead of the 2024 election.
The state Public Disclosure Commission levied the civil penalty on Service Employees International Union Healthcare 1199NW following a short hearing in which the union did not contest the punishment. SEIU represents more than 30,000 nurses, health care workers, and behavioral health workers in Washington.
Under a stipulated agreement, SEIU 1199NW will pay $3,000 within 30 days of the signing of the final order. The remaining amount is suspended if the union complies with campaign finance laws without significant violations for four years.
Let’s Go Washington filed the original complaint last November. The group alleged the union did not report a substantial sum of expenditures made in October until after the Nov. 4 election. That violated campaign finance laws intended to give voters campaign spending information before they cast their ballots, the group said.
Commission staff investigated and found SEIU1199NW made three expenditures totaling $430,000 on Oct. 3 and two others, totaling $2,400, on Oct. 21, that were not reported until Nov. 11.
Those included a pair of $200,000 contributions to the political campaign committees of the state House and Senate Democratic caucuses, according to the commission’s online database.
On Thursday, assistant attorney general Susie Giles-Klein, representing the commission staff, said there was no evidence the union acted intentionally to deceive voters. But, she said, this is an established committee and its finance officials should have known the rules.
Commissioners deliberated briefly in executive session before emerging and voting 3-0 to impose the penalty.
Union officials did not speak at Thursday’s hearing.
In December, an attorney for SEIU1199NW acknowledged the late filing but denied it was done willfully.
“The Union regrets its error and supports the work of the PDC and its mission. However, as the error was unintentional, the Union requests that a written warning be used as a remedy for this inadvertent violation,” attorney Carson Flora wrote to the commission’s compliance officer.
Let’s Go Washington founder Brian Heywood criticized the commission’s action as too lenient for “one of the most active political organizations in the state.”
“They knew what they were doing by hiding that information,” Heywood said in a statement. “This is one of the most serious public disclosure infractions and should be treated as such, but they were given a relatively minor penalty by the PDC despite admitting their guilt.”
He said it raises questions about whether the campaign watchdog is “giving preferential treatment to politically aligned organizations.”
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