SEIU's Anna Burger (left) and Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (right)
On Monday President Barack Obama nominated Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to be the next Health & Human Services Secretary.
Sebelius’ Senate confirmation may create a fight, largely because of her controversial stance on abortion.
One major union, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), is likely to support Sebelius monetarily in her confirmation battle, since they represent thousands of nurses and health care workers. This article will show several monetary relationshiops between Gov. Sebelius and SEIU, and some connections between Gov. Sebelius and SEIU’s Anna Burger and Andy Stern.
SEIU Secretary-Treasurer Anna Burger said on Monday:
“Health care reform is crucial to fixing the economy, and with Kathleen Sebelius at the helm of Health and Human Services, we can be sure it gets the attention and sound management it deserves”
While SEIU spent $27 million to help elect Barack Obama, they declined to say how much they plan to spend on the campaign for Sebelius.
The Sebelius-SEIU connection is not at all new. In Dec 2008 a Meadowlark article gave details about a $100,000 payment received by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius’ Bluestem Fund PAC last year when Gov. Sebelius wasn’t even running for re-election. As reported in this previous Meadowlark article, weak Kansas Law allows SEIU and other out-of-state PACs to file “Verified Statements” with the Kansas Secretary of State when these reports are never put online for public disclosure.
Shown below is the Verified Statement filed by SEIU’s Anna Burger showing their $100,000 contribution to Sebeluis’ Bluestem Fund PAC:
SEIU's Verified Statement with $100,000 to Sebelius
In her Oct 27, 2008 Bluestem Fund PAC report, Gov. Sebelius reported receiving $415,000 from only 14 contributors. Three of the contributors each gave $100,000, including
- the American Federation of Teachers [Washington, DC],
- the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) [Washington, DC], and
- SEIU [Washington, DC].
Sebelius’s PAC spent $485,996 in the reporting period before the Nov. general election, with many contributions to pro-abortion candidates, and many expenditures against pro-life candidates. These expenditures were also likely part of a get-out-the-vote campaign for Barrack Obama.
Sebelius’ Bluestem Fund PAC even sent $1800 to the political store, Zoller Lutz Wienbarger LLC, setup at the same address as Dr. Tiller’s ProKanDo PAC. [See the bottom of this report, or slides 50-54 in the slide show in this report.]
Sebelius’s Gubernatorial campaign received $32,750 from various SEIU groups in 2004-2006, but SEIU and Sebelius’ Bluestem Fund PAC were also major players in funneling money to the Kansas Democratic Party in 2006 in a complicated scheme, part of which is shown below:
Part of Complicated Money Scheme Used by Kansas Democrats in 2006 involving SEIU and Sebelius' Bluestem Fund PAC
This complicated money scheme in 2006 was used to re-elect Gov. Sebelius and knock out prolife Attorney General Phill Kline.
Besides the monetary connections between SEIU and Gov. Sebelius and her PAC, Gov. Sebelius also joined SEIU’s Anna Burger, and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano on the campaign trail for Barack Obama in Indiana about two weeks after receiving the $100,00 check for her Bluestem FUnd PAC described above.
In addition to working with SEIU’s Anna Burger, in May 2008 Gov. Sebelius co-authored an article, Main Street, not Wall Street, should fix crumbling U.S. infrastructure, with SEIU president Andy Stern.
The SEIU support for Gov. Sebelius should not be surprising given all her past connections with SEIU.
Related:
- Over $500,000 missing from online PAC reports in Kansas, Kansas Meadowlark, Dec 4, 2008.
- Kansas Democrats Use Congressional District Party “Committees” as Political $uperfund, Kansas Meadowlark, Jan 23, 2007.
Tags: Anna Burger, Kathleen Sebelius, SEIU, Verified Statements
