Critics of Pennsylvania’s state-run liquor stores often regard the United Food and Commercial Workers union as a political juggernaut. Judging by its reported lobbying activity, though, you might think they were peering through beer goggles.

The UFCW, which represents state store employees, has reported $1,179,716 in lobbying since 2007, ranking it just 128th among Harrisburg interest groups. Unions generally aren’t top lobbying concerns: The $3.9 million reported by the most active, the Pennsylvania State Education Association, ranks only 22nd.

Some Harrisburg observers expressed surprise at those totals; others said labor’s influence lies in the workers it taps for campaign contributions and political fieldwork. But the Commonwealth Foundation of Public Policy Alternatives, a Harrisburg “free-market think tank,” has a different take.

“Unions are significantly under-reporting their lobbying,” said spokesman John Bouder. In federal filings, he noted, the UFCW reported $503,508 in lobbying for 2014, when it reported $372,690 to the state.

“There is a difference between the accounting that the federal government wants and how the state does it,” said UFCW Local 1776 President Wendell Young IV.

Mr. Young isn’t registered as a lobbyist, though lobbying is “one of many hats I wear.” While UFCW discloses payments to outside lobbyists, state law exempts any “individual who does not receive economic consideration for lobbying” — and as president, Mr. Young said, he isn’t paid to lobby per se.

UFCW also hasn’t reported a 2014 TV campaign urging viewers to “tell your state [legislators] to say ‘no’ to liquor privatization.”

State law requires lobbying interests to report the cost of messages that “encourage others [to take steps that will] directly influence legislative action.” But Mr. Young said the ads were “representational activity” about contract issues, not lobbying.

“Asking the public to support [state store] members is no different than asking them to support our members at grocery stores,” he said.

The state Ethics Commission, which investigates alleged violations of the law, hasn’t weighed in on that question. While it has issued advisory opinions concerning disclosure, it has rarely investigated lobbying reports. Out of 92 cases where the commission fined violators, 91 involved simple paperwork problems, mostly failing to file reports on time.

Robert Caruso, the commission’s executive director, said that generally, anyone who performs 20 hours or $2,500 worth of lobbying per quarter should register as a lobbyist. But “unless we have something concrete — like we know you were in the General Assembly for 25 hours — it’s difficult to determine” a violation. The commission has six investigators, who also police the ethics of public officials statewide.

“The commission has a Herculean job, but they are underfunded,” said Gene Stilp, a government activist.

A formal complaint would spur a full ethics investigation, but none has been filed against the UFCW, even after conservative media attacked its filings last year.

“We thought a complaint would be most effective coming from someone with a more obvious stake, like a legislator, said Mr. Bouder. That no one had done so, he said, was “a disappointment.”

First Published: August 16, 2015, 4:00 a.m.