Labor & Employment Law

Washington Labor Council Flier ?Best? on Secret Corporate Cash

By Mike Hall

When it comes to politics, campaign advertising, candidate endorsements and all other forms of electioneering, the union movement has nothing to hide. Our name is right there, out front on fliers, leaflets, television commercials.

We don?t hide behind election laws and made up patriotic names. Our spending and contributions are a matter of public record, unlike the well-hidden and top secret money trail that leads to the Chamber of Commerce and the radical right groups that don?t have to reveal from which corporation, front group or extremist millionaire their campaign cash is coming from.

That caught the eye of author Paul Loeb. In a recent column on Huffington Post, Loeb points to a recent flier from the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) on the U.S. Senate race between Sen. Patty Murray (D) and Wall Street waterboy Dino Rossi (R). 

Loeb says it sums up exactly what?s at stake if the secret hundreds of millions of dollars corporate front groups and extremist political action committees buy this election.

As campaigns and volunteers hone their final electoral messages, the best flier I’ve seen asks a simple question?”Will They Get What They’re Paying For?” Created by the Washington State Labor Council, and proudly bearing their name, not that of some shadowy front group, it portrays a check from the US Chamber of Commerce to Republican Washington State Senate candidate Dino Rossi.

Notes in the memo field remind us of Rossi’s positions: Lower minimum wage, repeal Wall Street reform, offshore U.S. jobs. Below the check is a field of corporate logos: BP, Fox, JPMorganChase, Walmart, AIG, Philip Morris, Citigroup, Pfizer, McDonalds, Comcast, AT&T and more.

Read Loeb’s full column here.

The flier concludes with a comparison on the issues and a simple, straight-forward conclusion: ?Dino Rossi works for them. Sen. Patty Murray works for us.” Loeb says if Rossi and others like him win in November, they will

delightedly play the role of wholly-owned subsidiaries of the most rapacious corporations in America, and groups like the Chamber that give them political cover

He urges other groups to adapt the WSLC template for their own use and WSLA Communications Director David Groves says it?s fine with the Labor Council and no permission is needed. Says Loeb:

With corporations pumping in unprecedented levels of dollars through shadowy front groups?like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (a completely separate organization from your local Main Street Chambers, despite trading on their credibility), Karl Rove’s Americans for Prosperity, and the Koch Brothers’ American Crossroads?we need to make their spending the salient issue in every message we put forth.

Full post as published by AFL-CIO NOW BLOG on October 15, 2010 (boomark / email).