Business outspends labor 15 to 1

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Although the outcome of the presidential election remains unclear, preliminary exit polling results reveal that union members were decisive at the polls. Voters from union households represented 26 percent of the vote overall, according to polling by the U.S. Bureau of the Census, and even higher proportions in key battleground states. In Michigan, for example, 43 percent of all voters were members of union households.

Unions unleashed a grass-roots mobilization and "people-powered" campaign to combat the massive political spending of big business. The $841.8 million in political contributions made by business so far in the 2000 election cycle swamps the contributions of working families through their unions by 15 to 1, according to a new report by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics. The report, "Who's Paying for This Election," says union political contributions since Jan. 1, 1999, total $56.3 million.

It was labor's people-powered campaign that contributed significantly to what appears to be a narrow Al Gore-Joe Lieberman win of the popular vote, supporting them over the George W. Bush-Dick Cheney ticket by a margin of 63 percent to 32 percent, according to election night polling of union members by Peter D. Hart Research Associates.

"Union members stood behind Gore because he is on the right side of the issues that are central to our lives," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. Sweeney also called for an investigation into reported irregularities in Florida balloting.

The results capped the most massive mobilization of working family voters ever by the AFL-CIO.

From the first union volunteers who rallied voters for Iowa's caucuses last January to the last AFL-CIO Labor 2000 volunteers making Election Day get-out-the-vote phone calls, working families mobilized the biggest people-powered election campaign to date. An estimated 100,000 union members volunteered their time at worksites, phone banks and in precinct walks to support candidates who will fight for a Working Families Agenda.

Based on Federal Election Commission data released Oct. 1, the Center for Responsive Politics study says business has an even greater advantage in one type of political spending - in "soft money" contributions, business outspent unions by 17-to-1.

During the 1998 election cycle, according to a previous report by the center, business outspent unions on politics by 11-to-1, as it had for the 1996 elections. During the four years prior to 1998, the center reported a 34 percent jump in political fund-raising.

In releasing the center's new report Oct. 18, Executive Director Larry Makinson said spending on the 2000 election could top that of the previous presidential election by 50 percent.

The failure by Congress to pass campaign finance reform legislation supported by working families and their unions guarantees that business can continue to shovel hundreds of millions of dollars more to its favored candidates than unions can match, the AFL-CIO said.

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