Hedge Funders, Wealthy Sent Secret Campaign Cash to Derail Wall Street Regs
We’re starting to find out where some of the tens of million of dollars in secret corporate campaign cash came from and what the donors were after . No surprise—Wall Street hedge fund managers, who teamed up with extremist groups run by Karl Rove and others, according a new report from NBC News.
A tightly coordinated effort by outside Republican groups, spearheaded by Karl Rove and fueled by tens of millions of dollars in contributions from Wall Street hedge fund moguls and other wealthy donors, helped secure big GOP midterm victories Tuesday, according to campaign spending figures and Republican fundraising insiders.
The two biggest spending groups behind the barrage of attack ads and mailings against Democrats were both founded by Rove and former George W. Bush White House insider Ed Gillespie—American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS. Combined reports NBC, they spent $38 million.
A substantial portion of Crossroads GPS’ money came from a small circle of extremely wealthy Wall Street hedge fund and private equity moguls, according to GOP fundraising sources who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity. These donors have been bitterly opposed to a proposal by congressional Democrats — and endorsed by the Obama administration — to increase the tax rates on compensation that hedge funds pay their partners, the sources said.
Read more here.
The day after the election, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and American Crossroads chairman Mike Duncan, squared off in a post-election debate. Click here
The Chamber’s False Claim on Union Political Funding
Magicians call it misdirection. Get the audience to focus somewhere else so they don’t see the obvious trickery in front of them.
The Chamber of Commerce, in the spotlight earlier this month for allegedly using contributions from foreign corporations and other overseas entities to fund its U.S. political activities, is trying to get the public to look the other way. They don’t want us to see the sneaky sleight of hand that’s controlling its $75 million election war chest. BTW, under federal election law, the Chamber does not have to reveal the sources that are filling that political war chest.
The Chamber, conservative columnists like George Will and right wing activists like Karl Rove claim it is the AFL-CIO that is funding its election activities from foreign sources. First, our one word response—Bunk.
Now, we’ll derail the Chamber’s absolutely false claim—also known in some circles as a flat-out lie—with more detail.
Knocking on Doors, Winning Votes
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On Saturday, Joseph Portman, a member of United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), spent the day door-knocking on union members’ doors in Louisville, Ky., talking with them about the vast differences between union-backed U.S. Senate candidate Jack Conway (D) and Tea-Party-endorsed Rand Paul (R).
On the drive back to UAW Local 862, where more than 100 union members had gathered that morning for another in a series of labor walks, Portman said getting out the working family message is
important for us to do…and for me more importantly, because I’m a union member and people like to hear from people who actually get out there and work….For the next 38 days, this is what I’m going to be doing.
Anti-Worker Group Pays Rove $100,000 to Fight Employee Free Choice
Here we go again. Yet another misleadingly named, corporate-funded front group has been created to block the freedom to form unions and bargain and scare people away from the Employee Free Choice Act. And where there are big corporate dollars and smear campaigns, you can bet that repudiated and disgraced political hacks like Karl Rove can’t be far behind.
This time, reports Think Progress, the “Economic Freedom Alliance” (EFA) is paying the checks to Rove. The EFA, a new corporate front organization “partnering with a number of Midwestern statewide employer organizations,” has paid Rove, George W. Bush’s sometime top political operative, $100,000 this year for his services as a high-priced consultant to their disinformation campaign.
The EFA, with Rove’s assistance, is using websites, billboards and other tactics to try and pressure U.S. senators to vote against the Employee Free Choice Act. It’s another desperate attempt, fueled by a big bankroll, to block real change for working people. (Sounds familiar, huh?) The corporations who fund the EFA and line Rove’s pockets know the Employee Free Choice Act would give workers—not their bosses—the choice about how to form a union and bargain for their fair share.
24/7 Action in the Field for Employee Free Choice
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| North Florida union members protest a meeting of an anti-union group in Jacksonville. |
As the Employee Free Choice Act gets closer to reality, the anti-worker disinformation campaign grows louder with corporate front groups throwing everything they have against workers. Across the country, union members and their allies are pushing back and letting the corporate titans know they won’t back down when it comes to the freedom to form unions.
In Wisconsin, union members converged in Milwaukee to protest an appearance by Karl Rove, the former Bush administration political enforcer who is traveling the country telling corporate executives to fight the Employee Free Choice Act. And in Florida, union members gathered in Jacksonville outside a meeting of an anti-union corporate group, the “Center for a Union-Free Workplace Environment,” to protest their opposition to workers’ freedom to bargain for a better life.
Cheney, Rove Attack Employee Free Choice. Thanks!
Workers who want to pass the Employee Free Choice Act don’t just have a broad coalition of allies in support of them—they’re also very, very lucky in their enemies. Opposing the legislation has become a cottage industry for out-of-work, right-wing hacks, and the fight has attracted the attention of one of the most widely loathed out-of-work, right-wing hacks: Dick Cheney.
The broadly unpopular former vice president attacked the Employee Free Choice Act as a “huge mistake” on a Fox News appearance yesterday, reports Sam Stein of the Huffington Post. And naturally—does it even need to be said—Cheney’s claims about what the bill would do are flatly false and repeatedly debunked.
As advocates of the Employee Free Choice Act, we enthusiastically welcome Dick Cheney as an opponent. What better symbol of the anti-worker campaign than an angry multimillionaire who’s already been broadly repudiated for his disastrous effects on the country? (Even some Republicans are wishing he’d “go back to his undisclosed location.”)
Health Care Workers at Risk as Swine Flu Spreads
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Yesterday, the World Health Organization (WHO) raised the threat of widespread human infection from the outbreak of swine flu to its second-highest level. The outbreak of swine flu originated in Mexico and is now spreading throughout the United States and around the globe.
But as an April 16 report released by the AFL-CIO and several unions, including the United American Nurses (UAN), warned, the nation’s health care workers—the first line of defense against the diseases—are at risk because many the nation’s health care facilities are not prepared to deal with a pandemic. The report, which surveyed 104 health care facilities in 14 states, found that while health care facilities have made some progress in preparing for an influenza pandemic, much more needs to be done. The survey found:
- More than one-third of the respondents believe their workplace is either not ready or only slightly ready to address the health and safety needs necessary to protect health care workers during a pandemic.
- 43 percent of respondents believe that most or some of their fellow workers will stay home.
