Boucher and the Dem's have a problem with "foreign" money in politics?....

Last week there was much noise in the news, most of it from our President and his back pocket media, about "foreign" money in politics especially regarding the Chamber of Commerce contributions to Republican candidates....

Seemingly referring to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, President Obama said earlier this month that that “one of the largest groups paying for these ads regularly takes in money from foreign sources.” According to a Democratic National Committee TV commercial, “It appears they’ve even taken secret foreign money to influence our elections.”

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Congressman Boucher in the 9th is now crying about "outside influence" effecting his campaign in the 9th district of Virginia...

“What we’re seeing is unprecedented,” Boucher said moments before speaking at a campaign stop in Abingdon on Saturday. “It’s an avalanche of attack ads against me, funded maybe by outside sources across the nation, maybe even outside the country.”

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So let's take a look at that "foreign" money that our Democratic Party friends are complaining about and where most of it actually goes....

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The Chamber’s website explains how AmChams work: “AmChams are independent organizations, created to represent American companies in overseas markets, and they do not fund U.S. Chamber political programs. Collectively, AmChams pay nominal dues to the Chamber — approximately $100,000 total across all 115 AmChams. Under our budgeting system, the nominal funds received from AmChams and business councils are used to support our international programs.”

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Look at what the top 23 unions out there contribute to the candidates and where that "foreign" money actually comes from...

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The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation provided me with data taken from the U.S. Labor Department’s LM-2 disclosure forms filed by 23 unions that make substantial campaign donations. These figures are from each union’s 2008 reporting period (either calendar or fiscal year 2008). Rather than union dues, the money disclosed on the LM-2 forms is income from international affiliates, overseas royalties, legal-settlement payments, and other miscellany.

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This foreign money presumably was segregated from union campaign coffers. Still, it is interesting to see how these 23 unions distributed their political cash. While the Chamber was giving $258,907 in 2008, these unions jointly contributed $35,025,103 to candidates, PACs, and parties. Democrats scored $32,859,130, or 93.8 percent, of this cash. Republicans got the remaining $2,165,973, or 6.2 percent.
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The SEIU union has also been in the news recently for its bullying tactics used in the past...

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The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) in particular has been unfriendly to Republicans and friendly to foreign donations. It directly gave Democrats $2,771,213, or 95.3 percent, of its donations to candidates, parties, and PACs. Republicans got the rest: $137,000 (4.7 percent). Its members’ mandatory dues supply SEIU’s political treasure chest.
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Maybe Congressman Boucher should worry about this "foreign" money in the campaigns....
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“SEIU is the largest union of immigrant workers in the country, and a number of them are undocumented,” Executive Vice President Eliseo Medina has said. “But let me hasten to add, these are not just Latinos. In our membership are Eastern Europeans, Irish, Polish, Indians, Chinese — the whole world is represented among the undocumented and also in our membership.”

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