Big checks and spending for the end game

Plus the Supremes tackle a medical debt problem and some recommended reading

With ballots on kitchen tables and a seasonally appropriate atmospheric river soaking the region, big political players in Washington are making it rain for election season’s closing weeks.

The biggest check, for $2.2 million was written by SEIU 775, the powerful and free-spending union representing long-term care workers, to its campaign for a constitutional amendment that would allow the state to invest premiums from the state’s long-term care insurance program in the stock market. A similar amendment failed in 2020. The constitution generally forbids investing public money in private companies, although several other funds have been exempted over the years. Proponents argue the program needs the market’s higher returns to stay afloat. There’s not much opposition, although some of the handful of lawmakers who voted against the idea earlier this year are casting shade.

Image by Substack’s AI illustration robot

Elsewhere in big money…