‘Spend it
like it’s burning a hole in your pocket.’
That’s
apparently Dave Regan’s philosophy when
it comes to ballot initiatives.
During the
first 111 days of 2018, Regan spent $6 million on just one of his more than 10 ballot
initiatives, according to California campaign
disclosure records.
Soon, he may
be spending lots more.
His initiative
-- which targets kidney dialysis companies in an effort to push them into a
unionization deal with SEIU-UHW -- qualified
this week for California’s November ballot.
If Regan can
convince the dialysis companies to cut a special deal with him, he could withdraw
his ballot initiative before a June 28 deadline. If not, the initiative is
headed to an expensive statewide election campaign against deep-pocketed opponents.
The dialysis
industry, which is dominated by two giant for-profit companies, has already
organized a coalition of nearly 100 organizations to oppose Regan’s ballot
measure, according to the
coalition’s website and press releases. And it has already mounted attack
ads against Regan’s initiative.
How much
would SEIU-UHW have to spend to win a statewide election campaign?
Observers
say it would be very expensive. California has some of the most expensive media
markets in the nation with top-dollar prices for TV, print and radio
advertising and a massive voter population in the state of 40 million
inhabitants.
How much
cash does Regan have left in SEIU-UHW’s bank account?
In recent
years, he’s used a strategy of boosting dues on SEIU-UHW’s members and holding
down spending on representation and member support in order to assemble big
cash reserves. By the end of 2017, Regan had stockpiled $63 million in cash (vs.
$14 million in debt). That’s a lot of money. Remember, however, that he burned
through $6 million in cash for just one
of his 10+ ballot initiatives in just the first 111 days of 2018. At this
point, it’s unclear how much is left.
 |
| Dave loves ballot initiatives |
Why is Regan
spending so much of SEIU-UHW’s budget on ballot initiatives?
Good question.
During the past seven years, he spent more than $30 million of SEIU-UHW’s
budget on 20+ ballot initiatives, all of which were unsuccessful in producing
organizing victories. Even his infamous deal with the California
Hospital Association, which grew out of a threatened ballot initiative, eventually
exploded in flames and left SEIU-UHW on the losing end of costly lawsuits.
Despite these
failures, Regan decided to double down on his ballot-initiative strategy in
2018. According to Politico,
he has filed more ballot initiatives in 2018 “than in the past six years
combined.” In fact, he’s even begun plying his ballot-initiative strategy in
other states. For example, Regan introduced a copycat initiative targeting the
dialysis industry in Ohio, where he needs to collect more than 300,000 valid
signatures from registered voters by July 4 in order to place the issue on the
November ballot, according to press
accounts.
Regan appears
to be locked into a high-risk game of chicken with the dialysis industry… and
the filing of copycat initiatives in other states is his effort to raise the
stakes.
Will Regan’s
multi-million-dollar ballot-initiative gamble pay off this time?
What happens
if it doesn’t… and Regan burns through $40-$60 million of SEIU-UHW’s savings
without any real victory? Will the union’s members take him to the shed?
Stay tuned.
