Local Business Groups Seek Distance From US Chamber of Commerce

[Purveyor]

Local chambers of commerce across the country are seeking to distance themselves from the US Chamber of Commerce, or are even breaking formal links with the national group, in the wake of controversy over its role in the current election cycle.

The Nashua Telegraph in New Hampshire reports that the Greater Hudson Chamber of Commerce has severed its links with the national organization over what it sees as the Chamber's increasingly partisan tone.

“We didn’t like the fact that the US Chamber was supporting particular candidates,” Greater Hudson Chamber executive VP Jerry Mayotte said. “We don’t think it’s good business practice to do so. ... We take stands on particular issues considering business, but not particular candidates."

--SNIP--
The Telegraph notes that "Hudson isn’t the first to separate from the US Chamber because of political disagreement. Many local chambers broke off years ago or never joined in the first place."

Among those who never joined, there are chambers of commerce that may be wishing in this campaign season that their names weren't so similar to the national organization. Faiz Shakir at ThinkProgress notes that the chamber in Charlottesville, Virginia, has refused to endorse attack ads the US Chamber is running against Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello.

“I now have a standard e-mail saying we’re not a chapter of the U.S. Chamber that I have to send out a couple of times a week,” the chamber's president, Timothy Hulbert, told Washington Monthly last summer.

MORE...

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/business-groups-distance-chamber-commerce/

[Cirque du So-What]

1. Why do local COCs need to be affiliated with a nationar org anyway?

Seems to me that local boosterism should focus on businesses and the fostering of cooperative relationships on a local or regional level, so why do they even need a national organization like the USCOC? I've always worked for large corporations who were only nominal members of the local chapter if they were members at all, so I'm not familiar with how it works, but to me it seems more effective to focus on local development than sending dues to some nationwide organization.