Our View: Labor group overstepped with blatant e-mail

The well-deserved demise of the Worker Privacy Act is being blamed on the allegedly threatening tactics applied on its behalf by organized labor.

The ill-advised measure would have prohibited employers from requiring employees to attend worktime meetings on religious or political issues, including unionization. With the bill stalled over questions about its constitutionality, a staffer of the Washington Labor Council sent an e-mail urging union leaders to tell Democrats they could expect “not another dime” from labor until the bill became law.

Such a blatant connection between legislative performance and campaign donations touched off a round of serious harrumphing. Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and House Speaker Frank Chopp huddled with each other, with their lawyers and finally with Gov. Chris Gregoire. In addition to killing the bill, they notified the sheriff, who notified the Washington State Patrol, which is consulting with prosecutors to see if laws were broken. If so, shame on labor.

But is it a surprise that special interests expect something in return for the handsome contributions they make to political causes? It is not.

In 2006 the Building Industry Association of Washington waged a controversial effort to elect favored candidates to the Washington Supreme Court. Never had Washington voters had a clearer picture of the ideological leanings of certain judicial candidates, who usually try to conceal them. Under those conditions of uncommon transparency, BIAW’s preferred challengers went on to lose.

Regardless of questions about legality, the Washington Labor Council loses style points for the ham-handed tactic. But from the public’s point of view, the episode merely offers a reality-TV glimpse of how politics is routinely played in the Legislature.

The lesson here is that public disclosure matters.