The Washington Post has this editorial, noting an odd arrangement (or perhaps just an under-reported arrangement) in Montgomery County, Maryland - a suburb of Washington, DC.

Writes the Post, "Candidates who receive the union's stamp of approval are also then expected to pay. As far as we know, this arrangement is unique; in elections elsewhere, unions and other special interests contribute to candidates, not vice versa. . . . In the latest elections for the Montgomery County Council, in 2006, most candidates on the union-approved (and trademarked) 'Apple Ballot' coughed up the maximum contribution allowed by state law, $6,000, to a PAC run by the Montgomery County Education Association, as the teachers union is known. Union-backed candidates for the Board of Education also paid handsomely."

 

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