Mike Antonucci
October 2002
Mike Antonucci of the Education Intelligence Agency has produced a short but fact-filled report on the political expenditures of the teacher unions, compiled from innumerable sources. It's really only the tip of an immense iceberg. It does not, for example, include spending for lobbying by union employees and members, nor can it quantify the costs of "issue ads" or internal political communications between union leadership and the rank-and-file. And it doesn't have as many subtotals and totals as one would wish. Still, it's the most informative report of its kind we've ever seen, especially with regard to election year spending by political action committees (PACs) allied with the national unions and their state affiliates. And it's especially timely as the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law goes into effect, a law that will, for example, force the unions to redirect some $3 million of PAC money that they've been accustomed to giving directly to the national political parties (mainly the Democrats). You can download this report from http://home.earthlink.net/~mantonucci/voice/voice.pdf.
