With just three weeks left until the Nov. 2 elections, Democrats are playing defense against an onslaught of campaign advertising paid for by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and aimed at defeating Democratic candidates.
Led by President Obama, Democrats have in recent days condemned the chamber’s expenditures and claimed that a January ruling by the Supreme Court that allowed unlimited campaign spending by big business and labor unions has led to unfair elections. They have gone further in their criticisms of the Chamber of Commerce, claiming — without offering evidence — that some of the money the chamber is distributing comes from illegal foreign sources.
During a campaign stop in Philadelphia to help Democratic Senate candidate Joe Sestak, Obama warned his party’s rank and file that Republicans are trying to “hijack” the election.
“The American people deserve to know who’s trying to sway their elections, and you can’t stand by and let the special interests drown out the voices of the American people,” Obama told the crowd.
Democratic congressional leaders are also blaming the new campaign law, which lifted the limits on campaign spending, for their woes.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who is in a dead heat with GOP opponent Sharron Angle, told a crowd last week that his political predicament stems in part from the Supreme Court decision, which has resulted in “tens of millions of dollars in ads being run against me.”
Reid has himself aired millions of dollars in attack ads against Angle, though he defended them as “contrast ads” and said that, unlike Angle, “I’m not making stuff up.”
The campaign law, however, benefits candidates like Reid as much as chamber-backed Republicans because it allows unlimited campaign contributions made by labor unions, which raise tens of millions of dollars almost exclusively to help Democrats.
The chamber has pledged to spend $75 million to elect candidates it favors in this year’s elections. Though it is supporting a handful of Democrats this year, including Reps. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin of South Dakota and Glenn Nye of Virginia, the chamber contributed to Republican Senate candidates by a nearly 10-to-1 margin over Democrats and gave Republican House candidates more than twice as much as it gave Democrats, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The liberal think tank Center for American Progress first accused the chamber of using foreign donations to fund its campaign ads, a charge picked up by Obama and other Democrats. The chamber denies the claim. When Obama’s top political adviser, David Axelrod, was asked by the media to present proof of the claim, he had none to offer.
The Democratic National Committee is now airing a television ad that repeats the charges that the chamber is using illegal foreign contributions.
“They’re stealing our Democracy, spending millions from secret donors to elect Republicans to do their bidding in Congress,” the ad declares. “It appears they even take in secret foreign money to influence our elections.”
Republican strategist John Feehery suggested that Democratic attacks on the chamber could backfire.
“People already think that Obama is a business-hating socialist,” he said. “Attacking the chamber in this way only confirms their worst fears.”
