Liberal Unions Try to Bailout Bobby Bright

MONTGOMERY—With his campaign flailing just two weeks before an historic election, incumbent Democrat Bobby Bright is receiving eleventh hour support from some off the country’s most powerful labor unions that are desperate to keep Nancy Pelosi and the liberal Democrats in the majority.

A shady 527 political organization called “Citizens for Strength and Security” has purchased airtime on local television stations in the Second District for pro-Bright political ads. The 527 organization, rated by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics as Democratic-affiliated and liberal, has spent more than $5.5 million in the last two election cycles in support of liberal causes.

Top contributors to “Citizens for Strength and Security” include some of the largest and most powerful liberal unions in the nation, including the controversial Services Employees International Union, the Teamsters Union, and the United Food & Commercial Workers Union.

The well-publicized agendas for these and other contributors are squarely in-line with the liberal positions taken by President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi. Advancing an agenda that includes government takeover of health care, job-killing card check legislation, and amnesty for illegal immigrants is a central part of the mission of these unions.

“The fact that union front groups are spending money in Alabama’s Second District deeply undercuts Democrat Bobby Bright’s claim to be independent,” said Mike Hamilton, campaign manager for Martha Roby. “These unions are spending money in Alabama for one reason: they know a vote for Bobby Bright is a vote to keep Nancy Pelosi in power.”

“I ask Democrat Bobby Bright to renounce this union front group and tell them their liberal money will not fool the voters of the Second District,” said Hamilton.

This influx of union money comes after Nancy Pelosi’s Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee has spent nearly a million dollars trying to prop up Bright’s rudderless campaign. The DCCC has spent more in AL-2 to save Democrat Bobby Bright than for any other member of the Democrat majority.

The late-inning assist from liberal unions comes shortly after Democrat Bright announced he was only able to raise $209,600 in the third quarter, $150,000 less than his Republican challenger Martha Roby. Less than 25 percent of Bright’s contributions came from individual constituent contributors.  

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