Anti-Union Group Worked to Influence Elections in 5 States

By MATT VOLZ, ASSOCIATED PRESS
HELENA, Mont. — Feb 17, 2016, 1:50 PM ET

It was a tantalizing offer for candidates for state legislative offices, many of whom had never mounted a campaign before.

A national anti-union organization offered candidates in five states a "deadly effective" series of seven custom-written letters that would be signed with their digitally-scanned signatures and mailed to thousands of voters in the final weeks before Election Day. For that personal touch, female National Right to Work Committee field workers would rewrite by hand a "wife letter" — which staffers said was a particularly potent appeal to voters.

The organization offered the mail to candidates in Montana, Iowa, Kentucky, Indiana and Nevada during the 2010 elections, according to thousands of emails, letters, mailers and testimony obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request.

While the organization has not been accused of wrongdoing, the documents are being used in civil cases against nine of the 14 Montana candidates who received "the works" package. They are accused of illegally coordinating with and taking unreported contributions from Right to Work and its affiliates.

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The documents, more than 14,000 in total, had been subpoenaed by Montana's elections regulator from the computers of Right to Work's field operatives, and provide a rare look into the inner workings of so-called "dark money" groups.

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