The Republican Nat. Committee received $15,000 in soft money from the Hotel Employees & Restaurant Employees Int’l Union on May 5. Yes, you read correctly; the RNC got money from one of America’s most corrupt unions according to a recent report from Public Disclosure, Inc. HERE was one of four unions cited for corruption by President Reagan’s Commission on Organized Crime in 1986. The Commission said HERE was “substantially influenced and/or controlled by organized crime.” HERE has been linked to the Bruno-Scarfo, Colombo and Gambino crime families in government lawsuits. And just last year, Kurt W. Muellenberg, a U.S. Dist. Court-appointed monitor, issued a scathing report on corruption within HERE.
This is the same RNC which in a recent fundraising letter said: “Now [the liberals are] going all-out to seize monopoly control of the government! …Big Labor, trial lawyers, and the entire array of powerful left-wing interest groups are spending hundreds of millions on a vicious campaign of attack ads targeting Republicans nationwide!” The letter also said, “[Dick] Gephardt has made a career of catering to Big Labor [and] Education Unions…all-owing them to rewrite legislation and dictate how your taxes are spent.”
To be fair, unions soft money to Democrats far out-paces contributions to Republicans this election cycle. The corrupt Am. Fed. of State, County & Municipal Employees alone has already given $410,000 to Democratic committees. But RNC committees also received $40,000 from the Nat. Education Ass’n on Feb. 18 and $15,000 from the Service Employees Int’l Union on Mar. 23.