from the Chicago Sun-Times:

Labor called shots in Dem campaign?


July 20, 2001

BY LARRY MARGASAK AND JOHN SOLOMON


WASHINGTON--Documents that the Democratic Party and unions have sued to keep secret reveal a campaign strategy in which labor and party officials served side by side on committees that directed the Democrats' election activities in each state.

While labor's support of Democrats is well-known, the documents show labor leaders had veto power over Democratic Party plans in 1996 by virtue of their large donations and seats on the steering committees in each state.

''When the DNC and its national partners, including ... the AFL-CIO and the [National Education Association], agree on the contents of a plan, each national partner will give their funding commitment to the state,'' an internal DNC memo titled ''Rules of Engagement'' said.

Lawrence Noble, the nation's former top election regulator, said Thursday he was surprised by the degree of control unions held over Democratic decisions. Noble headed the investigation into GOP charges of illegal coordination between the unions and Democrats.

''The AFL had a certain amount of control over what political parties and candidates did. That is what is striking,'' Noble said.

The AFL-CIO donated $35 million in 1996.

At the request of the Democratic Party and labor unions, a federal judge has forbidden the Federal Election Commission to release the documents it gathered during its four-year probe.

The Associated Press obtained the documents from officials involved in various federal investigations of unions and from groups that got some documents briefly released by the FEC this spring, before they were abruptly pulled from public display under threat of litigation.

The documents detail extensive discussions between labor and party leaders on how to contact, register and influence voters to support Democrats and show where unions in some instances drew their money to accomplish the mission.

Frequently, officials from the Democratic Party or its congressional fund-raising arms contacted union officials to seek approval for election activities.

For instance, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee official Rob Engel wrote AFL-CIO political official Steve Rogers in September 1996 to discuss phone banks and direct mail efforts aimed at identifying voters and getting them to the polls in 16 target congressional districts.

''We request the AFL-CIO review these budgets and programs. If you approve them, we ask that you encourage your affiliated unions to contribute to each congressional district coordinated campaign,'' Engel wrote.

Around that time, the AFL-CIO ran ads in several of the same congressional districts portraying Republican candidates as out of touch with worker issues and Democrats as union-friendly, the FEC said.

John Hiatt, AFL-CIO general counsel, acknowledged that the union had veto power over Democratic activities it helped finance.

''For aspects of campaigns we subsidize, I think we would want veto power,'' Hiatt said. ''We may have veto power over issues or aspects we're working on, as other groups the Democrats are working with would want to keep control over things they're working on.''

In North Carolina, the documents show, state AFL-CIO President Chris Scott and state NEA President John Wilson each served on the management committee that handled day-to-day operations.

In Nebraska, the state party gave AFL-CIO and teachers union officials similar positions on its executive committee alongside officials from Ben Nelson's Senate campaign and other candidates.

The FEC's final report, stamped ''sensitive,'' concluded that the AFL-CIO had ''apparent veto power'' over the Democrats' election decisions in the states. The unions had the ''authority to approve or disapprove plans, projects and needs of the DNC and its state parties with respect to the coordinated campaign,'' the report said.

AP