News Briefs
Chamber of Commerce gets political
Jan 17, 2008 11:16 AM
Be afraid. Be very afraid. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn’t like the populist tone of some of the 2008 presidential contenders, and it’s planning to spend millions to defeat candidates it deems “anti-business.” It will use issue ads and attack ads, as well as field paid staff in key voting districts, something it did successfully when it helped South Dakota Republican John Thune squeak out a victory over Democratic Senate leader Tom Daschle in 2004.
“We plan to build a grassroots business organization so strong that when it bites you in the butt, you bleed,” Chamber President Tom Donohue said.
The Chamber will spend more than the $60 million it spent in 2004, a sum that approaches the spending levels planned by the largest unions, and will be active in 140 congressional races as well as in state court and attorney general races.
It’s not just John Edwards the Chamber doesn’t like. Both Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama have also criticized the nation’s masters of industry for failing working families. Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, whose flat tax proposal is pretty far from traditional populist nostrums, makes anti-business noises, too, so he’s also in the Chamber’s crosshairs.
Los Angeles Times, Jan. 8
