Karen Crummy of The Denver Post has been knocking it out of the park recently. On Sunday, she reported on the 150 to 1 differential in Super PAC spending on state races that Democrats held over "big money" Republicans in 2010. Today, she reports that public sector unions were the largest campaign donor in 2010.
Read the whole piece here. It's worth your click.
From Crummy's exposé:
Public-sector unions, whose members are dependent upon decisions made by elected officials, were the state's top donors to committees that helped put those officials into office in 2010, according to a Denver Post analysis of state campaign data.
The unions contributed to an extensive number of local and legislative candidates and gave large donations to a handful of independent political committees. Most of those political groups, which can spend unlimited amounts of money to influence elections, were part of a well-coordinated Democratic network targeting state-level contests.
…Beverly Ingle, president of the CEA, declined to be interviewed by The Post, as did Colorado WINS, which represents more than 31,000 state employees and donated $131,828 in the 2010 election cycle.
…AFSCME did not return calls from The Post.
…Eight percent of Colorado's workforce belongs to a union, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2010, organized labor spent a total of about $7.7 million on candidates and ballot initiatives.
Wonder why all of the public sector unions didn't want to return phone calls to the Post?
Maybe it's because Crummy's piece exposes the lie that liberals in Colorado have been peddling for years that "corporate money" is dominating politics.
That is clearly not the case.
The worst part of public sector unions donating such a heavy flow of campaign cash is noted in the lede — namely that public sector unions are donating to the same people who will decide their pay and benefits.
No chance quid quo pro could exist there. Of course not.
These recent reports on the extreme financial advantage that Democrats have had in Colorado should be a clarion call to conservatives across the state to step up and donate to the cause.
Conservatives have the stronger message, but without the means no one will hear the message.