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    Union spends big on ad attacking Romney in Florida

    TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — In what is organized labor's first major investment in the Republican presidential primary, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is spending almost $1 million in Florida on a television ad attacking Mitt Romney's business career.

    Romney and his allies have had the Florida airwaves to themselves for nearly a month as the rest of the political world focuses on South Carolina's Saturday primary.

    The new ad links Romney's business career to that of Florida Gov. Rick Scott. "Corporate greed. Medicare fraud. Sound familiar?" the narrator asks as Romney appears on the screen next to Scott, also a Republican former businessman.

    Facing similar attacks from his Republican rivals, Romney has been increasingly forced to defend his years at Bain Capital, a private equity company where the former Massachusetts governor accumulated his personal fortune.

    "A number of the other candidates are already pummeling Romney in South Carolina," said AFSCME political director Larry Scanlon. "We just think it's very timely. The Florida voters are going to be tuning in."

    Scanlon suggested that Florida represents the last best chance to stop Romney's march toward his party's presidential nomination. He's leading in Florida polls, although Saturday's contest in South Carolina could shift the dynamic if Romney stumbles.

    AFSCME will be very active in the general election, Scanlon says, but he adds that the union will take a "wait and see" approach on whether to invest any more resources in the GOP primary.

    "We have 25,000 members in Florida. We have 1.6 million members around the country who have a great stake in the election of the next president," he said. "We've always been big dogs in politics."

    The Romney campaign lashed out at the union once news of the ad became public.

    "President Obama and his union cronies will stop at nothing to distract from this president's failed record," said spokesman Ryan Williams.

     

    36 comments

    • catmandenny  •  4 mths ago
      This is why Obama spent so much time trying to help the unions with his "jobs" proposals.
    • TREE  •  4 mths ago
      Members of the United Auto Workers get paid $64 on average, without overtime but including benefits. This is just the average wage. Also, in California they are broke because in the public sector unions there is 1 worker for every 3 being paid in benefits. It is a scam that Union workers want fair wages. They want wages much higher than a similar skilled worker in the private sector.
      • trace 4 mths ago
        Non-union,huh.
      • Oppy 4 mths ago
        New hires get about half that and will never rise to that level as a result of concessions in the last master contract. I suspect you like to have millionaires making say $10,000/hour. Get off your kness, the rich are playing you.
      • USA 4 mths ago
        We aren't playing anyone, but we are coming after you union thugs.
    • Jason  •  Everett, Washington  •  4 mths ago
      Ah yes, the same Obama tactic at work. Cant stand this abuse of power.
      • Oppy 4 mths ago
        Huh? Are you a Koch sucker?
      • Jason 4 mths ago
        Sorry Oppy, I dont swing that way but I am sure if you go looking else where you can find what you feel you need.
    • Tom  •  Killeen, Texas  •  4 mths ago
      unions suck, they have just killed another American company, trane is leaving Tyler tx, labor cost the reason
      • Brian 4 mths ago
        the only ones worse are public sector unions , they are bleeding the taxpayers of NJ dry , just like leeches do
    • Rick  •  4 mths ago
      Good use of union members dues. Not.
    • HopeWeChange  •  Riggins, Idaho  •  4 mths ago
      Obama went to Disney World. I heard no one was able to wear those Mickey ears hats as Obama was convinced they were making fun of him.
    • HopeWeChange  •  Riggins, Idaho  •  4 mths ago
      Would you rather have someone that has earned millions, run businesses, run a state as President, or someone that is still attempting to find the mens room in the Whitehouse?
      • Dick 4 mths ago
        Would you rather put the party that put us on the verge of a depression and fought every attempt at recovery or Obama, who kept us from a depression, got bin Laden after 8 years of republican failure, ended the Iraq war, has turned the auto industry around, has turned Wall Street around, is decreasing unemployment by the day.
        Get off the fox and try thinking for yourself. You'll probably get headaches at first since it's been so long for you, but after a while, you'll wonder why you listened to them in the first place.
      • Robert 4 mths ago
        Dick the perfect name The party that put this country in a depression was the democrat party. They created the rules to lend money to deadbeats under clinton. Then later franks and dodd refused to do anything about fannie and freddie in 2004. You should be ashamed of your lies DICK
      • Free Thinker 4 mths ago
        bernie madoff earned millions too.
    • HopeWeChange  •  Riggins, Idaho  •  4 mths ago
      They must attack the Republican, for there is nothing that 0bama has done that is worth talking about...unless you talk about $5 trillion on the credit card in 3 years. Now that is something. It took 224 years to reach $5.7 trillion in debt.
      • Dick 4 mths ago
        The only thing Obama added to the debt was the stimulus plan spending numbnuts. The rest came from Bush tax cuts, Bush wars and Bush unfunded senior drug benefit/big pharma payback.
        Take that next welfare check and buy a clue Homer.
      • Sandwich Man 4 mths ago
        I'm glad we no longer have "first strike" as our foreign policy. Denounced torture. Added back in "pay as you go" for new budget items. Something the Bush administration stopped. Added the cost of the wars in the budget. Developed a comprehensive energy policy. Championed and passed healthcare reform. Something many Presidents had tried and failed to do.... Way too many things to list.... of course banking reform....needs to be mentioned... All while being opposed by a reactionary Republican Party interested only in his failure so they could take the reins again to insure their "fat cat" buddies would be able to continue sucking the life out of the American people.... When you only listen to Fox News, you think like a Fox....and they are not all that birght.....
      • Free Thinker 4 mths ago
        i can't stand obama either, but he can only spend what congress tells him he can spend.

        every time we blame obama and bush, we are just giving congress a free pass.

        every time we ignore the 10th amendment we are just giving congress the green light to spend more of our money.
    • JAMES  •  4 mths ago
      Union dues from the sheep being used for a good cause.LMAO
    • Wayne Hall  •  Oregon City, Oregon  •  4 mths ago
      tax unions
    • willyb  •  4 mths ago
      What I want to know is if this is the taxpayer money being used in these ads obama loaned the unions??? If it is, it needs to be stopped and that money repaid immediately because no taxpayer money can be used to political ends.
    • Breeze  •  4 mths ago
      That union is astoundingly stupid. A union's attacking a Republican persuades Republican voters that he can be trusted.
    • Brian  •  Ramsey, New Jersey  •  4 mths ago
      Now where are the chuckleheads screaming about union money in politics, they have no credibilty until they denounce union money being used for political reasons and must not allow the unions to co opt them ,, otherwise this is just a wing of the democratic party , nothing else, unions the new Wall Streeters , the real 1%ers
    • ron  •  4 mths ago
      They need to spend money to show how many jobs their messiha cost the unions
    • Raymond  •  West Haven, Connecticut  •  4 mths ago
      I am just glad they are not using my money. I always wonder how unions can use money from members many of whom disagree with the political position taken by the leadership who have their own axes to grind. Everyone complains about the money spent by big corporations. Big unions are in the same category so why is there no condemnation of their use of so much money that is not theirs.
    • spring  •  4 mths ago
      How do you union members like having all of your money spent this way? Do you get any say, of course not. Why are the unions supporting the job killer, obama? How do you like your boy turning down all the jobs connected to the Canadian Pipeline? I am so happy that all you union members are working and don't care about anyone else in the country.
    • NN  •  4 mths ago
      "American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees"
      Sounds like they have a lot to lose.
      Without bloated governments and needless spending, what ever will they do?
    • Ms. D  •  4 mths ago
      I was a union member for many years..Not by choice, I live in California. They used my union dues to support candidates I detested. Now union members can opt out, but they are threatened with job loss and harassment. Unions are the most corrupt groups I have seen. There is a lot of hypocrisy in this election and it is not the sole purview of the extreme left or right. The problem is voters who overlook it. I am voting for Romney. I trust his integrity and economic ability. He is rich, but earned it himself and knows how to help encourage business growth and prosperity. I hear attacks on his integrity, with no fact to back it up..He has lived a pretty clean life and I have been watching for many years.
    • Usmcvet  •  Dallas, Texas  •  4 mths ago
      Where are the "occupy" groups against the corruption of big unions? Nope, only "occupy" for liberal causes or against conservative causes. No rhyme, no reason, just one-sided.
    • R.Way  •  Oregon City, Oregon  •  4 mths ago
      "Attacking Romney", NOT Ron Paul, for all you Internet cheerleaders out there. Of course, even Ron is not supporting Ron in Fla. because it's simply too expensive for the handful of votes received, (his words, not mine.)

      "Attacking Romney", not Santorum, whose evangelical fervor to reverse Roe vs. Wade --using nothing more effectual than the Exec. Sec. to Congress (Prez.) bully pulpit to change the SUPREME'S decision, (no mere Presidents allowed)-- won't play as well in less-evangelical Fla.

      "Attacking Romney", not Gingrich, who has screwed the pooch in the South with evangelicals and cosmopolitan Fla. is too Yankee to appreciate his particular brand of rhapsodizing rhetoric, dappled with dastardly drippings of historic histrionics.

      It's Mitt's race to lose! The Union PACC's will be delighted to help him along --long before the REPUBLICAN Primary, right on up to the Election-- because they KNOW how this bread is buttered and hope to DIVIDE the Republicans...

      ...just like Teddy Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party did, exactly a century ago! Look it up. It's a recipe for Republican disaster, just waiting to learn if Republicans have learned anything from History or are doomed to repeat it.

      The Union's boy is looking THAT ugly, (his performance, no racism meant/needed in this remark), and the idea of United Republicans for Mitt scares the pee right down their pants-legs!
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