"Why unions are not super PACs"

Salon.com:

On Monday, the Wall Street Journal reignited a battle over money in politics when it reported that labor unions have been spending about four times more on political activity than was previously understood. Using public disclosure forms unions filed with the Labor Department, the Journal concluded that unions have spent over $4 billion on political advocacy at all levels of government since 2005.

“The result,” the Journal explains, “is that labor could be a stronger counterweight than commonly realized to ‘super PACs’ that today raise millions from wealthy donors, in many cases to support Republican candidates and causes.”

Republicans and proponents of secret money groups saw the report as vindication. Jonathan Collegio, the spokesperson for the Karl Rove-backed American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS, two of the largest outside groups backing conservatives, sent the article to reporters with the subject line “MUST READ.”  “Labor unions have traditionally spent far more on political activity than any other sector, and Super PACs like American Crossroads will at best balance them out,” Collegio said.

Indeed, this argument — that conservative outside spending groups are merely doing what labor unions have done all along, and are thus justified in their activities — has been a common conservative refrain since the Supreme Court handed down its Citizens United decision in 2010. But is it true?

In terms of sheer money, while it’s difficult to measure accurately or comprehensively, it’s probably not even close. In terms of direct contributions to candidates, business groups have given about $618 million to Republican candidates since 2000, on top of another $31 million to GOPers from ideological groups, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. Labor groups, meanwhile, have given under $35 million to Democrats over that same time period. “Whatever slice you look at, business interests dominate, with an overall advantage over organized labor of about 15-to-1,” the Center notes, though business groups divide their giving between Republicans and Democrats, while labor focuses almost entirely on Democrats. In terms of lobbying, labor groups are again hopelessly outspent. Together, they have collectively spent about $502 million on lobbying since 1998 — less than 11 separate business sectors spent individually. Each of those sectors, including defense and healthcare,  have each spent between $1 and 5 billion.

“This parity that supposedly exists,” Sen. Al Franken, a Democrat from Minnesota, said at a press conference this morning in response to a question from Salon, “it’s just not true. … These Republicans that say that, they’re wrong.”  (The event marked the rollout of a new version of the DISCLOSE Act, a bill to make all contributions over $10,000 transparent.)

When it comes to outside spending on ads, of the top five groups so far this year, four are conservative, one is liberal (Priorities USA), and none are labor unions. The first union on the list, the SEIU, comes in at 13th place. The AFL-CIO, the country’s biggest union, is even further down the list, just under Americans for Rick Perry, a super PAC that supported the Texas governor’s ill-fated presidential bid.

But beyond spending, unions operate under a completely different paradigm from the conservative independent expenditure groups in a number of meaningful ways.

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