Super-PACs swamp unions in campaign spending

[Omaha Steve]

http://washingtonexaminer.com/super-pacs-swamp-unions-in-campaign-spending/article/2502126

July 14, 2012


Karl Rove, former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to U.S. President George W. Bush, speaks during a panel discussion at the 2008 Mortgage Bankers Association Conference and Expo October 21, 2008 in San Francisco, California. The annual Mortgage Bankers conference runs through October 22. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)



Hayley Peterson
The Washington Examiner

The army of labor organizations that helped President Obama win the White House in 2008 have seen their spending power drop off dramatically since then, not only because of the unions' shrinking membership but because so many other outside interest groups are this year spending more money than ever before.

Labor union spending on political campaigns accounted for 35 percent of all outside spending in 2008, when interest groups spent a total of $87 million. But unions accounts for just 14 percent of outside spending this year, which has already reached $174 million, according to data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

The shrinking political power of traditionally Democratic labor unions coincides with the rising influence, on the other end of the ideological spectrum, of billionaire businessmen and corporations that now spend three times as much as the labor groups.

That shift in spending and influence is attributable to the 2010 Supreme Court decision in a case known as Citizens United in which the court lifted restrictions on political spending by labor unions, corporations and wealthy individuals.

FULL story at link.

[flamingdem]

1. K&R