Buying a Voice: U.S. Chamber attacks Kaine

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has been very active in the 2012 election cycle. Their 3rd party political action committee has paid particular focus to the U.S. Senatate. Recently they launched this ad attacking former Governor Tim Kaine (D).

The Chamber of Commerce is a group most people are familiar with, but the name is one that many organizations at many different levels take on. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a pro-business national organization that tends to support mainly conservative and republican candidates.

The Washington D.C. based group is now front and center in the U.S. Senate race in Virginia.  The man they have decided to attack is former governor Tim Kaine. The ad specifically attacks Kaine’s support for President Obama’s health care reform plan. Showing clips of the one-time DNC chair, praising the president’s leadership.

The “Chamber of Commerce” seems like a local group, something that stands up for local businesses and local communities, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pretty far removed from Main Street Virginia. They are a national umbrella organization, with members big and small from all over the U.S..

So far their third party spending arm has spent $3 million on T.V. ads across the country. Every single cent has been spent attacking democrats.

The ad is being shown in so many places that the Virginia Chamber of Commerce went out of their way to make sure voters knew they were still neutral in the race.  In a statement their CEO Barry DuVal said they do not plan to endorse in the race for senate and that the Virginia Chamber is “a non-partisan, business advocacy organization.”

In addition to the ad attacking Kaine, The U.S. Chamber has also produced a similar ad praising his likely general election opponent former senator George Allen.

That ad is funded by the same group pushing the anti-Kaine ad.

Politifact Virginia rated the claims in the ad attacking Governor Kaine as “false“.  Our report on the U.S. Chamber can be found below:

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Here is where we got our info:

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s web site can be found here.

The Center for Responsive Politics looks into the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s political spending can be found here.

The PolitiFact Virginia report on this ad can be found here.