U.S. Chamber Of Commerce using foreign contributions

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The U.S. Chamber of Commerce says it represents more than three million businesses and has approximately 300,000 members. Public records of corporations show that nearly half of the $149 million in contributions in 2008 to the Chamber came from only 45 donors. Many of those large donations coincided with lobbying or campaigns that potentially affected those contributing.

Is U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Using Foreign Money to Run Political Attack Ads?

It has been alleged that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a trade association and powerhouse in campaign funding, has been using money from foreign corporations to fund election attack ads. The Chamber has budgeted an unprecedented $75 million in the midterm elections. As of September 15, the Chamber had aired more than 8,000 ads on behalf of GOP Senate candidates alone, according to a study from the Wesleyan Media Project. Overall, the U.S. Chamber supports Republicans more than 90 percent of the time.

The Chamber may be violating longstanding campaign finance law that bans the involvement of foreign corporations in American elections. As a nonprofit organization, organized as a 501(c)(6), the chamber does not need to disclose its contributors in its public tax filings. Because it says no donations are earmarked for specific ads aimed at a candidate, the Chamber of Commerce also does not invoke federal elections rules requiring disclosure.

Foreign firms such as BP, Shell Oil, and Siemens are active members of the Chamber. But on a larger scale, fundraising has come from firms based in China, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, India, Egypt, Brazil, Russia, and other places. Russian banks controlled by the Russian government and state-owned oil companies in Abu Dhabi appear to have contributed to the Chamber.

The chamber has vigorously opposed legislation in Congress that would require it and other groups like it to identify their contributors when they spend money on campaign ads.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has also coordinated opposition to sweeping legislation to reform Wall Street and to create a new regulatory structure meant to avert another economic crisis. In April, the Chamber’s political director Bill Miller met with Wall Street executives, Karl Rove, and other Republican operatives. The next day, Miller fired off an e-mail directing Chamber members to fight reform, declaring that the Chamber "fundamentally" disagrees with President Obama’s approach and that the legislation cannot be improved.

Health insurance companies like Aetna secretly funneled up to $20 million to the Chamber for attack ads aimed at killing health reform. This money was in addition to their regular dues. Aegon, a multinational insurance company based in the Netherlands, Goldman Sachs, and Chevron Texaco have donated more than $8 million in recent years.

Embattled Democratic candidates, the target of Chamber-funded campaign ads, are crying foul, some pointing to the need to revisit last January’s US Supreme Court 5-to-4 decision in the Citizens United case, which makes it easier for corporations and labor unions to influence elections through campaign advertising.

There are many reasons foreign corporations are seeking to defeat Democratic candidates this November. The Chamber has repeatedly sent out issue alerts attacking Democratic efforts to encourage businesses to hire locally rather than outsource to foreign counties. The Chamber has also bitterly fought Democrats for opposing unfettered free trade deals. To galvanize foreign businesses, the Chamber has commissioned former Ambassador Frank Lavin — who served as the McCain-Palin Asia campaign director and has appeared on television multiple times recently saying a Democratic Congress is bad for business — to speak before various foreign Chamber affiliates to talk about the stakes for the 2010 midterm elections.