Political Action Contributions

July 21, 2005

Dear Douglas County Teacher:

The Douglas County Federation office has received a number of calls from members expressing concerns regarding political endorsements and flyers. For the most part, members express displeasure that their dues are being used for political reasons. Let me be explicit, your DCFT dues cannot be used for political campaigns. State and federal law requires that money used for political reasons must be collected separately and spent for that purpose alone. Your dues are used exclusively for the day-to-day operations of the Douglas County Federation office. So where does the political advertisement money come from?

In other organizations (such as the NEA), members are asked to contribute to a separate fund above and beyond their normal dues. These monies are usually known as "political action committees" or PACs. This money must be held in a separate account and never mixed with the other dues. At election time, these PAC monies are split between the national and local campaigns based on the recommendations of the organization's local political action committee. The money used for flyers and mailings comes from these PAC funds. In the DCFT, we have no active PAC (or as they are called in the AFT, "committees on political education" or COPE). Therefore, not one of the flyers or mailings you receive comes from your DCFT dues, either directly or indirectly through the portion we send to AFT. If the DCFT ever wanted to collect for political action, the law requires members to submit separate checks along with documentation showing they know the money will be used for political campaigns and they understand the distribution process.

Just as with PACs, the endorsements of candidates must follow both federal and state law. At the AFT convention, resolutions of endorsements are submitted, debated, and adopted following rules outlined in the AFT constitution. As with any large organization (AFT has 1 million members), many decisions are not unanimous.

Let's be frank, the DCFT does not always agree with the AFT. We believe that sometimes the AFT wanders into issues that are not related to our members' interest and we voice our concerns. But a wise man once said, "worry about the things you can control." We can make a difference for the teachers of Douglas County. We are committed to making Douglas County a great place to work and learn--concepts that are not mutually exclusive.

Sincerely,

Pat McGraw, President
Douglas County Federation