Edmonds mayor candidate Mike Nelson’s union activity questioned

Candidate for Edmonds mayor Mike Nelson doesn’t mention his day job or his recent legal troubles in his campaign material. That is because the state council was recently fined $250,000 by Attorney General Bob Ferguson for concealed electioneering for which Nelson serves as executive director of the union, SEIU Council 14.

This year the attorney general’s office found that Nelson’s SEIU Council 14 was guilty of “failing to timely register and report as a political committee,” and that they “made over $5 million in contributions to political committees.”

Of course, union members will now have to pay the fine of $150,000 (with $100,000 more suspended) for SEIU’s shady dealings with union money.

As a taxpayer hoping for effective government with transparency and integrity, I cannot support a union ideologue who is this shady. Even in the eyes of Ferguson, who was among the recipients of SEIU donations, Nelson has operated a concealed electioneering effort using dues money in violation of the law.

I’m alarmed that someone with such lack of integrity would expect to, now, run our great city of Edmonds.

Cliff Ruthrauff

Edmonds