Republicans fire back at Democrats' ad claims

WASHINGTON — Republicans and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are hitting back fiercely against a White House attack that charges them with using foreign donations to help finance political ads for candidates in the upcoming congressional elections.

The conflict is part of an already bitter partisan atmosphere that swirls around the Nov. 2 balloting, which could wipe out the Democrats' majority in the House of Representatives and, perhaps, the Senate. The expected Republican sweep likely would crush President Barack Obama's agenda for the final two years of his presidency.

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Democrats and Obama are suffering mightily in the opinion of voters because the economy is only struggling toward recovery after the most severe downturn since the 1930s Great Depression.

Nearly 10 percent of Americans are still without jobs and millions have lost their homes to mortgage foreclosures, retirement savings were wiped out in the near financial collapse of the fall of 2008, before Obama took office.

Rove responds, calls Obama hypocritical
Republican strategist Karl Rove called the Democratic attack false and said Obama was "being hypocritical" in suggesting foreign contributions were in the mix. He told a morning television talk program Tuesday that the Republicans don't accept overseas money, which is illegal.

Rove, who was former President George W. Bush's top political adviser, said Obama was demanding that Republicans release donor information even though he declined to release such information in 2008.

Rove charged that Obama had "no problem" with keeping his donors secret, and is only protesting now because "Republicans have taken up and started doing what Democrats have been doing for years."

And the Chamber of Commerce, which has already spent more than $20 million this year in campaigns mostly aimed at Democrats, is responding with an equally combative tone.

Chamber of Commerce rebuffs Biden
At a Monday campaign event in Pennsylvania Vice President Joe Biden joined the fray, insisting that the business lobby open its campaign spending books.

"I challenge the Chamber of Commerce to tell us how much of the money they're investing is from foreign sources," Biden said in Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he was stumping for a House candidate. "I challenge them, if I'm wrong I will stand corrected. But show me, show me."

Monday night, the organization fired back.

"We accept the vice president's challenge here and now, and are happy to provide our answer: Zero. As in, 'Not a single cent,'" said Tom Collamore, a senior vice president at the chamber. "We hope this clears it up, and hope the vice president keeps his word and stands corrected."

While the White House and Democrats have provided no proof the Chamber of Commerce is using foreign money in the campaign, the allegation dovetails with an underlying Democratic message that tries to tie big-business friendly Republicans to foreign interests and shifting jobs overseas.

MoveOn.org's ad
On Monday, the liberal group MoveOn.org began airing an ad in Illinois against Senate candidate Mark Kirk, a Republican. The TV spot uses his support from the chamber to link him to foreign corporations that, in the ad's words, "threaten American jobs."

Bruce Josten, the chamber's top lobbyist, said the campaign was "an attempt to demonize specific groups and distract Americans from a failed economic agenda."

Chamber of Commerce officials say the minimal amount of money they receive from overseas is carefully walled off from political spending.

The chamber says its 115 foreign business councils, known as "AmChams," pay a total of about $100,000.

"There is no evidence at all that the chamber has done anything illegally," said Richard L. Hasen, an expert on election law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. But he also said the potential for impropriety exists with any organization that accepts funds that would be illegal if spent on politics.

Unclear whether Democratic tactic will work
To be sure, money is fungible and money that is segregated for other purposes can free up money that can be used political for political advertising.

But the chamber is hardly alone. A number of labor unions and advocacy groups that participate in politics have foreign affiliates and overseas donors. By law, these groups must make sure no foreign funds are used to advocate for or against political candidates. What's more, foreign companies with United States divisions can create political action committees that accept donations from their U.S. employees.

Those foreign-connect PACs have contributed more than $12 million to political candidates this election cycle, with more than half going to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that tracks political money. PACS must itemize and identify the source of all contributions more than $200.

Nonprofit tax exempt groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are not required to reveal their contributors. Neither are outside groups such as Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, a group created earlier this year with the help of Rove. It, too, has become a target of Democrats for their extensive spending in Senate campaigns.

It's unclear whether the Democratic tactic will work, and it threatens to place moderate Democrats who have business support in an awkward spot. What's more, the complexity of the message is a hard one to convey in a 30 second television ad.

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