Teresa Mosqueda, former political and strategic campaign director of the Washington State Labor Council, has support from nearly every labor union in town.
Teresa Mosqueda, political and strategic campaign director of the Washington State Labor Council, has support from nearly every labor union in town. courtesy of campaign

More money is flowing into the race for an open citywide seat on the Seattle City Council. A few weeks after business interests bought $82,000 in ads supporting Sara Nelson, a new labor-funded independent expenditure campaign looks poised to spend even more in support of Teresa Mosqueda.

The newly registered IE campaign, Working Families for Teresa, reports raising $95,000 from several of the city's most influential unions.

Working Families for Teresa is funded by the political committees of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21 ($50,000), Service Employees International Union Local 775 ($30,000), the Washington State Labor Council ($10,000), and the Washington Machinists Council ($5,000). (The bulk of donations to the Labor Council this year have come from the political arm of the Washington State Council of Firefighters.)

The group has not yet reported spending any of that money or plans to spend it.

IEs are not bound by the donation caps candidates face when fundraising. They can raise as much money as possible, but are legally prohibited from coordinating with the candidates or their campaigns. This kind of outside spending has grown dramatically in local races in recent years.

At least two other IE campaigns could spend on the city council race.

Fuse Votes, the political arm of the progressive group Fuse Washington, is also registered as an IE committee with the city. The group has raised about $70,000 total, according to state records. Most of that has come from the Washington State Council of Firefighters and a handful of individuals, including several retirees and two Mercer Island investors. Fuse has endorsed Mosqueda for city council, but the group has not yet reported spending in any Seattle city races.

Another IE committee, Affordable Seattle, has registered with the city but has only raised about $2,550 so far, most of it an in-kind (meaning: not cash) donation of staff time from Socialist Alternative. The party of Council Member Kshama Sawant has endorsed Nikkita Oliver for mayor and Jon Grant for council Position 8.

UPDATE, July 25: Working Families for Teresa and Fuse Votes have started placing orders for mailers and ads in support of Mosqueda. Working Families for Teresa reports spending about $42,000 to create and print mailers and nearly $35,000 for postage. The group also reports spending about $11,000 on radio ads that will run between today and election day. Fuse Votes reports spending about $10,000 for online ads on The Stranger supporting Mosqueda.