The CWA, NJEA and AFSCME zeroed out what had been historically steady donations to candidates and to political parties early this year
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TRENTON — Three major public worker unions’ committees stopped donating to state lawmakers while the legislators — who face elections in November — were preparing to vote on a landmark overhaul of pensions and health benefits.
The Communication Workers of America, New Jersey Education Association and AFSCME zeroed out what had been historically steady donations to candidates and to political parties between January and March, records show. The reform bills were introduced in February.
Instead, the unions waited until the benefits fight was nearly over, holding their resources to fund last-minute donations in late May and early June to individual politicians before the party primaries.
In June — weeks after the primary — eight Democrats in the Senate and 14 in the Assembly sided with Republicans and voted yes on changes to government workers’ pensions and health benefits.
The public employee unions who had opposed the measure promised retribution.
“We’ll remember in November,” shouted angry workers who gathered in viewing galleries. Some union leaders are especially angry because their groups had already poured financial resources into those Democrats’ coffers for the November elections.
Today, campaign finance reports covering donations from April through June — records that will cover the final union donations before the primary — are scheduled to be released.
Reports made public on Tuesday, however, showed that the Democratic State Committee received no contributions from the CWA, NJEA and AFSCME.
A spokesman for the Democratic State Committee, Jason Springer, confirmed those unions had not contributed, but declined further comment. Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex), chairman of the committee, was one of the members to vote against the bill package, which raised workers’ contributions to health and pensions and removed unions’ health care from the collective-bargaining table until 2014.
The CWA instead made $98,800 in individual contributions to candidates in late May and early June, according to reports filed with the state Election Law Enforcement Commission. That included $8,200 to Jeff Van Drew, before he became one of the eight Democrats who supported the pensions and benefits changes. Likewise, AFSCME made $126,500 in donations just days before the June 7 primary, including $7,000 to Van Drew and $1,000 to Republican Sen. Michael Doherty, both bill supporters, the reports showed.
Union heads say the pensions and benefits bill passage prompted soul-searching, not only among members disheartened by lawmakers’ decisions, but among the union-led committees that have given more in recent years than all other PACs combined and now have to decide what to do with their money.
“I don’t actually care for that word, ‘retribution,'" said Hetty Rosenstein, CWA state director, recalling the chants that informed the union’s strategy. “But I don’t think we’re going to fall into the pit of supporting anyone who destroyed collective bargaining, just out of fear of losing a [Democratic] majority.”
Unions’ hesitation to support rank-and-file Democratic lawmakers was not on the horizon one year ago, when many of those same unions began making donations — sometimes small but in regular increments — to candidates who had already formed campaigns aimed at 2011.
Between 2008 and 2010, those same unions typically made small routine contributions that totaled more than $133,000.
Any hesitation in giving represents a break from election tradition. In 2009, union-led PACs accounted for 68 percent of all PAC giving, according to figures from ELEC.
From January to March, in the run-up to the vote, NJEA’s committee reported giving nothing to statewide political candidates. That broke a pattern of contributions that often kept campaign accounts active for months after an election. When all 120 legislative seats were last up, in the first three months of 2007, the NJEA’s committee gave $45,070 to more than 50 candidates’ campaigns.
Instead, the union has this year spent its members’ dues on a campaign against Governor Christie’s education policies, coupled with his refusal to tax millionaires. The campaign, fronted by a website MillionairesForChristie.com, was paid for out of general union funds, according to Steve Baker, an NJEA spokesman.
“We’re obviously disappointed at the outcome of the vote,” Baker said.
But Baker said the union would not close the door on supporting those who had voted yes in the future.
“Anyone who voted for the bill, and certainly was a prime sponsor of the bill, would have a very steep mountain to climb to get us to support them,” Baker said. “But I can’t rule it out.”
Law enforcement unions, who are also affected by the changes to pensions and health benefits, continued to make donations to individual candidates, the ELEC reports showed. The political committee led by the Fraternal Order of Police gave $9,650 in the first quarter, while state troopers gave $8,000. Between April and June, the committee for State Troopers Fraternal Association of New Jersey was the only public-workers union to give to the Democratic State Committee, making a $2,600 donation.
Further funding will be decided after unions complete their lists of endorsements for November in early August.
Rosenstein indicated the union members may choose not to endorse Senate President Stephen Sweeney at the AFL-CIO conference on Aug. 4.
“I would be very surprised if he got that,” Rosenstein said.
Baker, a spokesman for the NJEA, said the union would make their decisions on Aug. 6.
“I don’t want to prejudge anything, but I’d agree I’d be very surprised if he got our support,” Baker said.
By Juliet Fletcher/Statehouse Bureau Staff