Tasty earlier
reported how SEIU-UHW spent more money in 2018 on ballot initiatives than it
did on organizing and representing its own members on the job.
So where did
SEIU-UHW spend all of the $37.5 million that went to “political activities and
lobbying”?
According to
the union’s financial report, six political consultants and ballot initiatives
walked away with three-quarters of the total. Here they are.
- $14.9 million to Waterfront Strategies (Washington DC)
- $4.6 million to the Fairness Project (Washington DC)
- $2.5 million to Kimball Petition Management (Thousand Oaks, CA)
- $2.1 million to Ohioans for Kidney Dialysis Patient Protection (Ohio)
- $1.2 million to Savvy Communications (Rancho Mirage, CA)
- $2.2 million to Greenstripe Media, Inc. (Newport Beach, CA)
The biggest
winner, Waterfront Strategies, is an
advertising purchasing firm that places media tons of media buys for PACs. The
firm’s parent company is headed by Jim
Margolis, a former media strategist for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential
campaign.
The Fairness Project is an organization
founded by Dave Regan and principally funded by SEIU-UHW to run ballot initiatives
in states outside of California. The head of the organization’s board of
directors is
Steve Trossman, one of Regan’s
staffer who was also wrapped up in the Tyrone Freeman scandal.
Kimball Petition Management, or KPM, is
a petition drive management firm owned by Fred
Kimball, who founded the company in 1984 with his brother, Kelly. Fred
Kimball was profiled in a 1998 article, "Collecting
Signatures for a Price" in the Washington Post, according to Ballotpedia.
Regan set up
Ohioans for Kidney Dialysis Patient
Protection to run a 2018 ballot initiative in Ohio. Altogether, Reagan
spent $4.1 million on an effort to collect signatures, but forgot
to have his signature-gatherers fill out a required state form. As a
result, the Ohio Supreme Court voted unanimously to knock Regan’s initiative on
the ballot.
Savvy Communications appears to be
another name for her Stones’ Phones,
a consulting firm specializing in phone strategies for campaigns.
Greenstripe Media, Inc. is an
advertising purchasing firm headed by David
Takara.
And here’s
the punchline: Despite pouring tens of millions of dollars into political
spending in political spending, Regan has no victories to show for it as far as
winning organizing rights for workers and expanding the union’s membership.
