Union emerging as powerhouse in Ohio politics

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/115485324076540.xml&coll=2



Union emerging as powerhouse in Ohio politics
SEIU's tactics criticized by some
Sunday, August 06, 2006
Aaron Marshall
Plain Dealer Bureau

Three page article

snip: That board has become crowded in Ohio as SEIU has sought to build up the union while trying to become a bigger political force. It has widened its array of political tools by becoming involved in a Springfield ballot issue and several mayoral races last year, dishing out more campaign contributions this year and courting public opinion with three reports lashing out at Ohio hospitals over the past 16 months.

While Ohio SEIU President Dave Regan acknowledges that his union is positioning itself politically, he sees the activities as simply good politics meeting smart organizing tactics.

But the union's critics, chiefly the Ohio Hospital Association, see nefarious motives lurking behind the reports and political power plays. They see the SEIU activity as a broad campaign designed to batter them into stepping aside and signing neutrality pledges when the union tries to organize new hospitals.

Even before its historic break from the AFL-CIO last summer, the SEIU had always had a presence at the Statehouse, plying a handful of Democratic lawmakers with modest contributions in the 1990s.

In its contribution to statewide Democratic candidates this year, the SEIU has been distributing $10,000 checks like a nurse handing out aspirin: six to gubernatorial candidate Ted Strickland, three to aspiring state treasurer Richard Cordray and two apiece to state auditor wannabe Barbara Sykes and state attorney general candidate Marc Dann. In all, the political giving has multiplied fourfold in two years, with about $220,000 doled out from a variety of SEIU political action committees over 137 days this year.

"We will consistently be much more active and significant players in the political arena," said Regan. "We want to be the most effective political organization in Ohio."

The union also has ties to other Democratic candidates: State Senate candidate Sue Morano of Lorain, whose race is the top targeted legislative race in Ohio, is an SEIU nurse; 72nd House District candidate Dale Henry worked for the union during the Springfield ballot issue campaign; and former union staffer Keith Dailey serves as Strickland's top campaign spokesman.

In 2005, the union launched an unprecedented effort to sway voters in municipal elections by sending staffers to work on Democratic mayoral campaigns in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Youngstown and Toledo.

In Cincinnati, home to Ohio's largest group of hospitals in Catholic Healthcare Partners, the SEIU spent more than $100,000 to help Mayor Mark Mallory win election.