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Legislative

Political Committee

Political Committee Notes

August, 2009

At its first meeting in August topics included how to:

          1) improve the logistics and content of our visits with state legislators on our annual Day on the Hill

          2) divide up the work between federal and state legislative issues

          3) prioritize/clearly articulate our many legislative issues

          4) update members on what’s happening at the Capitol.

The Committee will also undertake three projects initially assigned to separate task forces. One of those is the Day on the Hill. The other two are legislative alliances and the endorsement of political candidates. Members who volunteered for these task forces will join the Political Committee while it is working on these additional projects.

Speaking of endorsements, members should be aware that because MSEA is structured as a non-profit organization, we are prohibited from endorsing candidates for partisan state or federal races, and we are prohibited from establishing a political action fund. We are permitted to endorse for school board or PERA board candidates, which are non-partisan. Most importantly, we are permitted to endorse and lobby for state and federal issues, such as health care and health insurance reform, protecting PELRA’s right to strike, public school funding, worksite safety and the Employee Free Choice Act. The Committee will also be looking at all of these issues to develop our legislative platform and lobby our legislators and the Dept. of Education.

The issue of legislative alliances involves reaching out to other unions and organizations with common interests. We will begin with the informal coalitions that we already have with AFSCME Council 65, and can expand them to include other organizations and issues. Developing such alliances to address our mutual interests with a united voice will increase our strength, respect and visibility, not only at the legislature, but also in the eyes the public and our own MSEA membership.