Public Union Democracy

Full Court Press: Pennsylvania Union Political Spending in 2025

• David Osborne
• April 21, 2026

Key Points Political action committees (PACs) affiliated with trade unions and government unions spent $22.4 million in monetary and in-kind political activity in 2025, a year with few legislative elections…

Backgrounder

Regulation

Disconnected politicians lose those who ‘vote their jobs’

• Gordon Tomb
• May 3, 2022

Originally published at Pittsburg Tribune-Review After a protracted battle with lawmakers, Gov. Tom Wolf’s unilateral push to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) now moves forward. At risk…

Media Hit

Public Union Democracy

Why There’s “Money in Politics”

• Nathan Benefield
• February 4, 2019

The recent public corruption indictment of John “Johnny Doc” Dougherty, leader of the IBEW 98 labor union, Philadelphia City Council member Bobby Henon, and a slew of other IBEW leaders shows…

Media

Energy

Green Jobs Threatened by EPA Regs

• Gordon Tomb
• November 17, 2014

John Oelbracht has managed the Westwood Generation power plant in Schuylkill County for 10 years. It’s more than a job to him—it’s an undertaking to clean up the environment while…

Commentary

Public Union Democracy

Power Cycle Preventing Progress

• May 28, 2014

In a recent Philadelphia Inquirer editorial, the paper expressed its frustration with the lack of progress on critical issues facing the commonwealth. While CF doesn’t agree that all of…

Media

Public Union Democracy

Union Bosses Fight to Stay Relevant

• Priya Brannick
• July 12, 2012

Labor unions are so livid that the Democratic Party is having its national convention in North Carolina—a right to work state, and the country’s least unionized—that they are staging…

Media

Pennsylvania Union PAC Spending Topped $23 Million in 2010

• May 20, 2011

“Money in politics” is a popular topic of discussion; case in point: a study that executives and employees of natural gas companies gave over $2 million to Pennsylvania candidates…

Media