Unions give record funds to 2008 election

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), a group of 55 national and international unions, announced Friday that they would devote $53 million to the 2008 election, a figure that is up 11% from the amount in the 2004 election. It also plans to mobilize 200,000 volunteers who knock on doors and make phone calls in hopes of a higher voter turnout.

According to an article from the Associated Press, much of that budget is going to be dedicated to battleground states, such as Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

"Today the AFL-CIO is sending a powerful message that we are going to change the course of our country in 2008 by electing a president and candidates at all levels who are committed to restoring the promise of America to working people," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said.

According to the WSJ article, much of the money from the AFL-CIO will go to text-messages and emails, a new technique to pull in more voters.

While the AFL-CIO has not endorsed a specific party, it has given its members the right to do so. According to a New York Times blog, however, nearly 90% of the candidates the group endorses on a given year are democrats.

The Laborers International Union of North America, a union which is part of AFL-CIO, will spend nearly double what they did in 2008, much of it on new outreach methods.

The union will send text messages to members' cellphones and will tailor messages to retirees and Hispanic members, among others, via email and online documents.

Why are they doing all of this?

In the WSJ article, Gary Chaison, a labor expert at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., answered that question.

"This is the all-or-nothing election for them. They can't have another four years of not having the White House," he said.