Why Did SEIU Give $100,000 to the Republican Governors Association?

By now you’ve probably heard about Fox News’ parent corporation giving a million dollars to the Republican Governors Association. Noteworthy, but not necessarily surprising.

While leafing through the RGA’s IRS filings for Working In These Times, I discovered something out of the ordinary: The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which has given 100% of its campaign contributions to Democrats in the 2010 election cycle, also gave $100,000 to the Republican Governors Association this year and $100,450 to the RGA in 2009. That’s nearly a quarter of a million dollars for the 2010 election cycle. a startling increase from the $450 SEIU gave the RGA in the 2008 election cycle. Correction: In the earlier version of this post I stated, incorrectly, that SEIU’s giving to the RGA had increased significantly in the 2010 cycle over the 2008 cycle. That was based on the RGA’s filings with the IRS, which disclosed $0 from SEIU in 2008. SEIU sent documents showing that their contributions to the RGA had remained roughly consistent from 2007 to 2010. So, SEIU has given even more money to the RGA over the years than we initially thought.

SEIU has also given over $1.1 million to the RGA’s opposite number, the Democratic Governors’ Association this cycle.

Big political players often give to both sides to ensure influence no matter what happens at the polls. However, SEIU was the only union giving to the RGA last quarter, whereas many unions gave to the DGA. So, it’s not like hedging on the governors associations is the done thing for organized labor.

Read the full story here, including SEIU’s response: Why did SEIU give $100,000 to the RGA?

[Photo credit: flickr user Steve Rhodes, licensed under Creative Commons.]