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Vets and Threats

News   April 13, 2009 at 8:10 am Josh Feit

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1. Congress is on recess this week, which means Washington’s Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Reps. like Jay Inslee and Jim McDermott are in state showing up at events and making the rounds. Also in Washington state during the Spring break: Sen John Cornyn  (R-TX), the head of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (the GOP fundraising committee that backs Republican candidates for U.S. Senate.) 

Sen. Cornyn is reportedly holding court at the W hotel in downtown Seattle where, Morning Fizz surmises, he’s vetting potential candidates to take on Democratic Sen. Murray next year when she’s up for reelection.  

However, as our D.C. reporter Chris K. reported on PubliCola TV last week, the Democrats are acting like U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert (D-WA, 8) is already in play for Sen. Murray’s seat.

2. State Rep. Deb Eddy (D-48, Redmond, Bellevue) left a comment on our Firday post about the education reform bill where she accuses the state teachers’ union of threatening legislators in the same way the Washington State Labor Council supposedly  threatened legislators over the workers’ privacy bill. (Slight difference: The WSLC wanted a workers’ privacy bill to pass and the teachers’ union, the WEA, wants the education reform bill to fail. But the principle seems the same. Namely: It looks like the union is threatening legislators.

Rep. Eddy wrote: 

You might want to take a look at the letters sent to all representatives (and, I assume, senators) from the “uniserv” councils. These letters, and the enclosed resolution(s), left no doubt: anyone who supports any bill, any action, any budget item … any anything … that is not supported by the teachers’ union can expect to be opposed by the union in the next election.

What’s kind of sad about this situation is that the message isn’t particularly different than what prompted the shelving of the workers’ privacy bill last month. And the uniserv letters went to all legislators, I understand, not just the few working on the bill.

The significance of Eddy’s closing aside: The controversial WSLC email—which Democratic leadership used to table the worker’s privacy bill—was only sent to a few of the bill’s main supporters, along with WSLC’s membership. According to Eddy, the WEA letters (UniServs are local WEA councils) went to all legislators. This would make the threat more overt than the WSLC email

So, what Eddy is saying is this: If Democratic leadership was freaked out enough to kill the workers’ privacy bill because passing it would have appeared like they were caving to the union—shouldn’t leadership now call on Democrats to pass the education reform bill so it doesn’t look like they’re caving to the teachers union?


  • Trevor

    But Josh. That WSLC email controversy was always a red herring. Even Gregoire admitted she would have vetoed the bill if it would have passed because of Boeing (not the email). Boeing and corporations threaten to cut jobs if they don’t get tax breaks all the time. The BIAW plays hardball and Chopp still kowtows to it. I agree that it’s news if a state legislator accuses a union of threatening all legislators, so I’m glad you posted this. But until we see the text of that email, we shouldn’t believe the accusation. And you shouldn’t report these facile comparisons uncritically.

  • Trevor

    But Josh. That WSLC email controversy was always a red herring. Even Gregoire admitted she would have vetoed the bill if it would have passed because of Boeing (not the email). Boeing and corporations threaten to cut jobs if they don’t get tax breaks all the time. The BIAW plays hardball and Chopp still kowtows to it. I agree that it’s news if a state legislator accuses a union of threatening all legislators, so I’m glad you posted this. But until we see the text of that email, we shouldn’t believe the accusation. And you shouldn’t report these facile comparisons uncritically.

  • Deb Eddy

    Guys, I would not use the word “accuse.” I was pointing out that a letter was sent to some/all legislators which was pretty specific in saying that further support depends on behaving a certain way. Which is just what WSLC did. Happens all the time. And it’s sad that we can’t just have out-there policy debates, everyone comes down wherever they come down, and we move on. Not so much high drama.

  • Deb Eddy

    Guys, I would not use the word “accuse.” I was pointing out that a letter was sent to some/all legislators which was pretty specific in saying that further support depends on behaving a certain way. Which is just what WSLC did. Happens all the time. And it’s sad that we can’t just have out-there policy debates, everyone comes down wherever they come down, and we move on. Not so much high drama.

  • http://publicola.net/ Josh Feit

    Rep. Eddy,

    I totally agree with you: It happens all the time and you guys should just have the policy debates.

    I’ve said so right here on Publicola. Check this post about the Workers’ Privacy bill and my comments in the thread too:

    http://publicola.net/?p=3605

    But you wrote this:

    These letters, and the enclosed resolution(s), left no doubt: anyone who supports any bill, any action, any budget item … any anything … that is not supported by the teachers’ union can expect to be opposed by the union in the next election.

    Maybe “accuse” is too strong an interpretation on my part, but it sure sounds like you’re saying the WEA was threatening legislators.

    It also looks to me like when you compared the UniServ letters to the WSLC email (you write: “the message isn’t particularly different than what prompted the shelving of the workers’ privacy bill last month”) you’re sending a challenge to leadership: If they didn’t want to look like they were caving to a union threat on the privacy bill, fair is fair, and they should buck the bombastic union on the education bill too. In this instance, that would mean passing it.

    I did leave a message with your office this morning, so I could better understanding of your position. Call me back and let’s discuss.

  • http://publicola.net/ Josh Feit

    Rep. Eddy,

    I totally agree with you: It happens all the time and you guys should just have the policy debates.

    I’ve said so right here on Publicola. Check this post about the Workers’ Privacy bill and my comments in the thread too:

    http://publicola.net/?p=3605

    But you wrote this:

    These letters, and the enclosed resolution(s), left no doubt: anyone who supports any bill, any action, any budget item … any anything … that is not supported by the teachers’ union can expect to be opposed by the union in the next election.

    Maybe “accuse” is too strong an interpretation on my part, but it sure sounds like you’re saying the WEA was threatening legislators.

    It also looks to me like when you compared the UniServ letters to the WSLC email (you write: “the message isn’t particularly different than what prompted the shelving of the workers’ privacy bill last month”) you’re sending a challenge to leadership: If they didn’t want to look like they were caving to a union threat on the privacy bill, fair is fair, and they should buck the bombastic union on the education bill too. In this instance, that would mean passing it.

    I did leave a message with your office this morning, so I could better understanding of your position. Call me back and let’s discuss.