A mini-crisis is brewing in the Governor’s Mansion tonight. According to Seattle blog PubliCola, a swath of the state’s big labor bosses decided to cancel their RSVP at a Jay Inslee Christmas Party rather than be seen with a politician who allegedly “disrespected” them last week.
Despite the snub, Inslee must be laughing all the way to the bank. Just consider the dues money these unions extracted from their members to put into the SuperPAC that spent over $9 million on Inslee last year (from a partial list provided by Publicola):
- WEA/NEW – $1.5 million
- State employees federation – $800,000
- SEIU (various locals) – $1 million
- Washington Association for Justice (the Trial Lawyers union.) – $373,500
- Washington State Labor Council – $300,000
- Teamsters 174, 117 & Joint Council – 100,000
- United Food and Commercial Workers 21 – $50,000
Perhaps these union leaders thought they were buying some “respect” with the more than $4 million they put into the negative campaign that lifted Inslee over the top in 2012. Maybe they can ask Jay about it some other time, if they get another invitation after canceling so late on him this time.
