Labor leaders are planning to send at least 400,000 union members to campaign door-to-door for President Obama’s re-election, the New York Times reported on Monday. Unions, given new scope for grassroots activity by the 2010 Citizens United ruling, are hoping that their ground game will mitigate Republican super-PAC spending.
“Labor leaders say they expect unions to spend $400 million this year on national, state and local elections — including $100 million by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees — but they say their ground troops, not money, is labor’s signal contribution,” the Times reported.
“Look at what we’ve already seen this year — the super PACs have spent tens of millions of dollars,” Richard L. Trumka, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s president, told the Times. “We’re going to counter that by getting people out. We’ll never be able to match them with money.”
The AFL-CIO's super-PAC, Workers' Voices, "plans to spend the $3.7 million it has collected largely to finance labor’s efforts to reach out to nonunion voters,” the Times added. The Service Employees International Union plans to mobilize 100,000 members and “to focus in part on voter registration and turnout” in minority communities.
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