Free Republic

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 25, 2002 CONTACT: Eric Christensen 703-689-2370 703-689-2373 (fax) info@landmarklegal.org www.landmarklegal.org (HERNDON, VA)...Landmark Legal Foundation today asked the South Dakota Education Association/National Education Association (SDEA/NEA) to reveal the extent to which it has used tax-exempt membership dues to coordinate political activities with Daschle Democrats.org – a group associated with Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle. According to information posted on Daschle Democrats.org’s official website, Elaine Roberts, the immediate past president of the SDEA/NEA, was first appointed a member of the Daschle Democrats “South Dakota Advisory Committee” while still heading up the SDEA/NEA. Roberts, along with Daschle, served as...

Unions: That the teachers unions back Democrats is no surprise. They have for years. But why won’t they reveal the extent of that support? Certainly the unions are free, even duty-bound, to back candidates that share their views. And for the most part that’s meant Democrats. In the 2000 election cycle, for instance, 96% of the $6.1 million teachers unions gave to federal candidates went to Democrats, says the Center for Responsive Politics. But that amount seems to pale next to the amount spent by the unions to back Democrats with in-kind services such as campaign advice, petition-gatherers and phone...

For years, federal law has required any large labor union to file annual forms (LM-2s) with the Department of Labor reporting receipts and expenditures "in such detail as may be necessary accurately to disclose its financial condition and operations for its preceding fiscal year." Now, it is undoubtedly true that countless students taught by members of the National Education Association (NEA) would have difficulty understanding the relationship between the key words — i.e., "accurately" and "operations" — in that legal requirement. However, surely the NEA, which is the nation's largest labor union, has the wherewithal to hire an attorney capable...

WASHINGTON (AP) _ A conservative law firm complained Friday that the nation's largest teachers union failed to accurately disclose its political expenditures to the Labor Department as required by law. Landmark Legal Foundation contended in a written brief that millions of dollars were spent by the National Education Association since 1994 but were not listed in the union's annual reports to the government. Political spending included funds for candidate recruitment, fund-raising, screening candidates and political surveys, Landmark said. The foundation said the complaint would be filed Monday with the Labor Department. NEA spokeswoman Kathleen Lyons responded, "I see no basis...

With the assistance of a dozen or so Republicans, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle figures that he has the 60 votes necessary to defeat the all-night filibuster expected to be waged by Sens. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Phil Gramm of Texas. So, Mr. Daschle plans to have his chamber vote on a verbatim measure of the equally odious House-passed Shays-Meehan campaign finance bill. One major feature of Shays-Meehan is a ban on soft money donated to national party committees by individuals, corporations and labor unions. Banning soft money will increase the vastly disproportionate advantages the Democrats realize from Big...