Workers' Voices, the AFL-CIO's super PAC, has raised $3.7 million, Sam Stein reports. Sheldon Adelson, the casino billionaire who has put $10 million into Newt Gingrich's super PAC in two $5 million installments, would no doubt have a good laugh at that number. But the AFL-CIO's political program is a little different than just nuking Mitt Romney state by state, and the $3.7 million raised, of which Workers' Voices has $3 million cash on hand, will be dedicated to grassroots tactics:
"The Super PAC is a key component of the AFL-CIO’s move toward mobilizing working people in communities year round around jobs and other issues, candidates, and holding elected leaders accountable," said Alison Omens, a spokesperson for Workers' Voices. "As part of our grassroots program, it will empower working people to talk to their friends, neighbors, and coworkers about the direction of our country and taking action to restore balance to our economy. While others use Super PACs for shadow spending and endless television ads, the AFL-CIO’s Workers' Voices is about having real conversations in neighborhoods across the country, not 30 second spots on TV."
In other words, the revamped political strategy discussed in August by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka and political director Michael Podhorzer remains in place. This investment in year-round grassroots mobilization will, of course, be fighting the influence of the right's vastly larger investments in negative advertising, but the knowledge gained and commitments built through one-on-one conversations between union members and other workers, friends and family members will hopefully shape the opinions of those they reach more powerfully than advertising even though they reach reach fewer people.