ThinkProgress: Foreign-Funded ‘U.S.’ Chamber Of Commerce Running Partisan Attack Ads
Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue with his old buddy GBW (April, 2008)
The largest attack campaign against Democrats this fall is being waged by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a trade association organized as a 501(c)(6) that can raise and spend unlimited funds without ever disclosing any of its donors.
The Chamber has promised to spend an unprecedented $75 million to defeat candidates like Jack Conway, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Jerry Brown, Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), and Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA). As of Sept. 15th, the Chamber had aired more than 8,000 ads on behalf of GOP Senate candidates alone, according to a study from the Wesleyan Media Project.
The Chamber’s spending has dwarfed every other issue group and most political party candidate committee spending. A ThinkProgress investigation has found that the Chamber funds its political attack campaign out of its general account, which solicits foreign funding. And while the Chamber will likely assert it has internal controls, foreign money is fungible, permitting the Chamber to run its unprecedented attack campaign.
According to legal experts consulted by ThinkProgress, the Chamber is likely skirting longstanding campaign finance law that bans the involvement of foreign corporations in American elections.
Dana Bash was on CNN this morning claiming Democrats are doing the same thing. I’d love to see the reporting on that. So far, all I’ve seen are reports about these innocuous-sounding-named outfits like “Americans for Prosperity” and “Americans for Job Security” spending millions of dollars to fund teapublican campaigns.
What the Supreme Court did with “citizens United” is outrageous. It is undemocratic, unamerican, and I believe, unconstitutional. Their decision might turn out to be the catalyst for the insurgence of fascism (real fascism) in this country. It is scary.
On November 2, please get out and vote Democratic.
This is the fruit of the Supreme Court decision, it’s extraordinary. The very people who shout “USA! USA!” the loudest are the very ones now ploughing foreign money in to US elections. These facts have to be repeated until every US citizen hears them.
This type of thing makes me cringe. This, to me, is as UNAMERICAN as it gets; these “people” care nothing about America or “we the people.” This is criminal, in my opiniion-not to mention unconstitutional. But then again, the last administration made the constitution null and void. These demons need to be brought down big time. VOTE PEOPLE VOTE!!!!!
They will fail, just watch! God will not be mocked and these horrible groups and people that comprise the chamber of commerce will be exposed and disgraced.