Consultants Pocketed Millions from Dave Regan’s Ballot Initiatives

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.

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Suffers $4.1 Million Self-Inflicted Blunder in Ohio Ballot Initiative

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

Just in case Dave Regan’s lopsided defeat on last week’s ballot measures wasn’t bad enough, he suffered an even more embarrassing ballot-initiative blunder in his home state of Ohio.

In a f*ck-up of interstellar proportions, Regan’s Ohio dialysis initiative was knocked off the ballot because, well, Dave forgot to have his signature-gatherers fill out a required state form.

Way to go, Dave!

It gets worse. Ya see, Dave didn’t happen to notice his mistake until he’d already spent upwards of $4.1 million on his Ohio initiative. D’oh!

Of course, we’ve all made mistakes, right? But have you ever made a $4 million mistake? And it wasn’t even Dave’s money!

Here’s what happened.

After Regan’s SEIU-UHW filed an initiative against the kidney dialysis industry in California, Dave then filed copycat initiatives in both Arizona and Ohio in an apparent attempt to "up the ante" on industry leaders.

Months later, Regan abandoned his effort in Arizona.

But in Ohio, Dave soldiered on like a preacher consumed by the holy spirit. He spent millions on signature gatherers in a fervent quest to qualify his initiative, called the “Kidney Dialysis Patient Protection Amendment.”

In fact, Dave paid $3.6 million to a California signature-gathering company called PCI Consultants (headed by Angelo Paparella) to run his Ohio effort, according to campaign expenditure records from the Ohio Secretary of State.

And he paid thousands to the law firm of his private Ohio attorney, Michael Hunter of “Hunter, Carnahan, Shoub, Byard, & Harshman.”

In late July, Regan triumphantly filed 296,000 signatures to try to qualify his constitutional amendment for the ballot. But he was 9,500 signatures short. Fortunately for Dave, the Ohio Constitution gave him ten more days to collect the missing signatures. One more chance!

Ten days later, after spending even more money on his signature-gathering campaign, Regan finally hit the target. Except for one important thing. Dave’s crack team forgot to have the signature gatherers sign a state-required form required before collecting voter signatures. Whoops!

Dave’s opponents, the Ohio Renal Association, leapt on Dave’s blunder like a pack of hungry wolves on a T-bone steak. They sued to block Dave’s initiative on the grounds that his signatures were invalid. In a 7-0 decision, the Ohio Supreme Court agreed, thereby knocking Dave’s multimillion dollar initiative off the November 2018 ballot. 

(Jackie Borchardt, “Ohio kidney dialysis ballot issue invalidated by state Supreme Court,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 13, 2018; Laura A. Bischoff and Kaitlin Schroeder, “Ohio Supreme Court kicks kidney dialysis issue off the November ballot,” Dayton Daily News, August 13, 2018.)

When the court’s decision was announced, it must’ve been quite a scene at the Renal Association… execs doing back flips, taunting Dave for his colossal blunder, etc.

It turns out that Dave’s self-inflicted failure is even worse than it first appears.

Why?

In 2016, Regan committed the same exact dumb-ass blunder in Arizona, which caused another one of Dave’s initiatives to be stripped from that state’s ballot.

How did George W. Bush put it? “Fool me once, shame on... Fool me twice, shame on...” Except, of course, George kinda garbled it all up. (Here’s the YouTube video.)

So what’s up with Dave?

Maybe his memory ain’t so good these days. Perhaps his fistfight in a Sacramento bar and his headline-grabbing assault on a process-server have resulted in the premature demise of a few of Dave’s brain cells.

But you gotta hand it to Dave. When he f*cks up, he really f*cks up big-time.

According to campaign disclosure records, Regan spent $4.1 million on his Ohio campaign. And in June, he loaned $1.7 million of SEIU-UHW’s funds to the Ohio campaign. That money has not been repaid, according to the Ohio Secretary of State. These figures don’t include all of the national TV advertising, which tallied millions more.

Regular people get fired if we make a $50 screw-up at work.

So why isn’t Dave held accountable for his repeated multi-million-dollar blunders? Shouldn’t he be fired?

To view campaign expenditure records, go to the Ohio Secretary of State’s website and retrieve records for Regan’s PAC: “Ohioans for Kidney Dialysis Patient Protection” (PAC Registration No. BI1793). The PAC’s address is: 777 S. Figueroa Street Suite 4050 Los Angeles, CA 90017.

Dave Regan Confronts Hurdles in Ohio Ballot Initiative Effort

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan recently submitted signatures to try to put an initiative targeting kidney dialysis companies on Ohio's November ballot... but he came up 10,000 short of the 306,000 needed to qualify the initiative for the ballot.

That left Regan with just 10 days to collect 10,000 valid signatures before a state election deadline. (Jo Ingles, “Dialysis Clinic Regulation Ballot Issue Faces More Hurdles,” WKSU, July 27, 2018.)

Yesterday, an SEIU spokesperson announced that the campaign had submitted additional signatures that should qualify the measure for the ballot. The signatures must now be validated by state officials.

How much is Regan’s Ohio ballot-initiative project costing?

Beaucoup dinero.

As of July 31, Regan’s campaign had spent more than $4.1 million, according to records posted by the Ohio Secretary of State. (SEIU-UHW’s Political Action Committee is called “Ohioans for Kidney Dialysis Patient Protection”).

In an interesting development, campaign finance disclosure reports indicate that SEIU International gave $2.5 million to the campaign. Meanwhile, SEIU-UHW has “loaned” the campaign more than $1.7 million. It’s unclear if SEIU-UHW will ever be repaid.

Why is DC-based SEIU International contributing to the campaign?

After all, Regan has warred with SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry. It’s unclear what sort of internal politics lie behind this support.

Where has Regan spent the $4.1 million?

Most of the money has gone to a California signature-gathering firm that hires temporary workers to collect voters’ signatures. “In recent weeks we have seen hundreds of paid circulators,” said opponents of the measure, “many of them from out of state, gathering signatures on petitions.”

Meanwhile, Regan spent another chunk of change on polling and public-relations firms. Still other money has gone to the law firm of Regan’s personal attorney, Michael Hunter.

In June, campaign spending leaped skywards when the campaign paid more than $3.1 million to the signature-gathering firm headed by Angelo Paparella, according to disclosure records.

In yet another hurdle, Regan now faces a lawsuit over the ballot measure, which is designed to amend Ohio’s Constitution. 

The lawsuit was filed by the Ohio Renal Association, which represents the state’s 326 dialysis clinics. It seeks to block the measure from appearing on the November ballot. Of course, Regan will now have to spend gobs more money on lawyers to try to beat back the legal challenge.

So… the price tag for Regan’s ballot-initiative strategy keeps growing by the minute.

These new reports help us understand just how much money Regan is pouring into his 2018 ballot-initiative gamble, even though it doesn’t appear to be headed towards any resolution that would produce an organizing agreement between the dialysis industry and SEIU-UHW.

Stay tuned.

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan Waged Election Scheme in Ohio... Ending in Defeat

SEIU-UHW's Dave Regan

As Dave Regan tries to use ballot initiatives to wrangle a sweetheart deal from California’s hospital bosses, a reader has sent along an interesting article about Regan’s prior ballot adventures in Ohio. (See the article below.)

In 2003, Regan launched a ballot scheme while he was president of SEIU 1199 Ohio... and suffered defeat. In fact, the Ohio Elections Commission reprimanded Regan for lying to voters. (Shocking!)

Here’s what happened.

At the time, Cuyahoga County officials were trying to renew a county tax that funds health and human services for the poor. Ohioans were suffering under a terrible economy as well as budget cuts from state and federal governments. The county’s health and human services tax was critically important, according to press accounts, because it raised $80 million a year for safety-net services like foster care for abused children, health care and meals for low-income seniors, and mental health services for the poor.

During the run-up to the election, Regan decided to try to capitalize on the county’s desperate situation.  How?

Regan threatened county officials that unless they permitted SEIU to unionize their workforce, he would submarine the tax by waging an aggressive campaign to defeat it at the ballot box.

Genius move, right? What better way to improve the union's public support than to campaign for the elimination of safety-net services for foster children, working-class seniors, and mental health patients!  

After county officials refused to bite on Regan's deal, Regan reportedly spent a half million dollars of SEIU members’ dues money on TV ads, glossy mailers and newspaper ads to attack the tax and those no-good foster kids. Regan peppered SEIU's "voter education” materials with blatant lies, which got his ass reprimanded by the Ohio Elections Commission, according to a May 6, 2003 article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Regan also succeeded in alienating the rest of the labor movement, which unanimously opposed SEIU’s position.

On election day, the County's voters approved the tax... and Regan officially became the town idiot.

Here's an editorial -- entitled "Bald-Faced Lies" -- from the editorial board of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. It includes language like this:

The SEIU is purposefully trying to rip an $80 million hole in Cuyahoga County's safety net by denying basic human services for needy children, the working poor and those in desperate need of mental health treatment. For that, those involved in this campaign to defeat Issue 15 have forever earned this community's enmity…

...the SEIU and the out-of-towners campaigning to inflict further suffering upon the people of this community who can least bear it… bald-faced lie… falsehoods and fabrications…

   Cleveland Plain Dealer, "Bald-Faced Lies: The SEIU Wants to Beat a Levy and Cares Not a Whit for the L...