Colorado Teachers Unions Give 99.8 Percent of Political Funds to Democrats

Right now, it’s the heart of political season. That means some teacher organizations — the Colorado Education Association (CEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — are actively involved in contributing member funds to various campaigns. (Other teacher organizations do not collect or distribute member money for political contributions.) As Ed News Colorado reports today with a dog bites man headline: “Union contributions mount up.”

Through September 1, here’s an updated overview of how the two unions have spent on political action for the current 2010 election cycle (all information provided by reports on the Colorado Secretary of State’s campaign finance database). First, CEA and its local affiliates have given:

  • $494,015 to progressive and Democratic 527 and 501c4 political action groups
  • $260,110 to Democratic candidates and party organizations
  • $1,500 to a Republican organization (but no candidates) — That’s one dollar to Republicans for every 173 dollars to Democrats

And now the AFT:

  • $63,980 to progressive and Democratic 527 and 501c4 political action groups
  • $50,000 to Democratic candidates and party organizations
  • $0 to Republicans

Added together, Colorado teachers unions have contributed 99.8 percent of their combined political spending for 2010 to one party: the Democrats. Somehow, I’m guessing that CEA and AFT members won’t vote this year in quite the same proportion. Where’s the balance?

Check out our political contributions page for some context, to see how imbalanced teachers union political giving is even by recent historical standards.