The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) which is the mother-organization of the state employees association (SEANC) apparently feels it is above the law when it comes to complying with North Carolina’s campaign finance laws.
The SEIU’s political action committee, like all PACs, is required to file regular reports with the NC State Board of Elections (SBOE).
Only, SEIU has decided that it isn’t going to file its report detailing expenditures from the last quarter of 2008 (yes, the same quarter that includes the 2008 elections).
SEIU has been given ample opportunity to rectify the situation and has repeatedly failed to do so:
On Feb. 2, 2009 the SBOE sent a letter informing it that it was in non-compliance by not filing a 2008 4th Quarter report.
After receiving no response, on March 19, 2009, SEIU was informed that its committee’s active status was being terminated, meaning that could not have any activity in North Carolina.
Then on May 15, 2009, after still receiving no response from SEIU, the SBOE sent another letter threatening to refer the committee to the District Attorney’s office for prosecution for failing to file the 2008 report.
As of today, no response has been given and no report has been filed. SEIU continues to act in blatant violation of North Carolina’s campaign finance laws and continues to hide how it spent money in North Carolina in the days and weeks leading up to last year’s elections.
What makes this situation more bizarre and makes you think it is hiding something is the group filed its Mid-Year 2009 report. So it files reports on time when there are no elections occurring, but ignores requirements to do so in the time period around elections?
From records I can find, SEIU spent in excess of $1.5 million on North Carolina elections in 2008. How much more did they spend that hasn’t been reported?
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