By David Schmoll
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkms/local-wkms-932010.mp3
Murray, KY – The US Chamber of Commerce has been in the news a lot recently, defending themselves against allegations of using foreign money in this campaign cycle, including funding political candidates. But where exactly does the US Chamber receive their Political Action money? David Schmoll clears up the role of local chambers of commerce in the waning days of the election cycle.
The most evident place to see chamber spending in Kentucky is within the hottest race in the commonwealth between Jack Conway and Rand Paul for U.S. Senate. A US Chamber of Commerce ad calls out Jack Conway to "stop siding with Pelosi" on Medicare cuts.
The U.S. Chamber is among many entities spending millions of dollars in advertising this political season. In essence the U.S. Chamber of Commerce represents thousands of local chambers in communities across the United States. Many local chambers in our area are dues paying members to the U.S. Chamber. The chamber describes its primary objective as fighting "for free enterprise before Congress, the White House, regulatory agencies, the courts, the court of public opinion, and governments around the world."
Ben Taylor is the Regional Director for the US Chamber of Commerce in the Great Lakes region, of which Kentucky is a member. When asked about where the chamber gets it's funding from, he said from membership dues and individual donations, with each funding separate objectives.
"Our members donate funds that we use, we have a 200-million-dollar operating budget, and we use these funds to advocate on behalf of their interests in Capitol Hill and in the Administration in Washington D.C. And then we have a separate PAC (insert you saying, that's a Political Action Committee) that is separate from our operating budget. When we're talking about express advocacy fundraising and stuff like that for election purposes, that's separate and anyone can donate to."
While the US Chamber advocates on behalf of small businesses within the federal political system, local chambers operate in similar fashions in their own states. One such group is the Murray-Calloway County Chamber of Commerce. President and CEO Lance Allison explains.
"Murray-Calloway County Chamber of Commerce dues go towards the management of the Chamber, which would be staff salaries and things of that nature. Then the majority of the money will then go to promotion of the city, promotion of the businesses, information exchanged, that sort of thing."
But just because the majority of membership dues only go towards advertisings, Allison doesn't think the Chamber shys away from advocating on behalf of their businesses.
"The only efforts that we put in there are not necessarily money, but time. Getting the questions ready, finding out the information, dissecting the information and presenting it to the people. So, as far as spending money on any type of advertisment or any type of lobbying or anything like that, that would be zero."
The Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce is slightly different. President Elaine Spalding says the Chamber employs a membership funded lobbyist in Frankfort and in Washington to act on their behalf. Overall, 5% of membership dues are used on lobbying, while the other 95% fund the overall operations of the Chamber. However, Spalding does draw some distinctions between her operation and the US Chamber.
"The big difference is that most local chambers, in particularly the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce, is that we don't fund political candidates. We take business advocacy stands. So if the city government or state government was going to enact a tax against the business community we would take a stance on that."
But how do the businesses decide what issues to tackle? The Paducah Chamber has one way to figure it out.
"We have a group of very talented and very politically savvy business leaders that work with us through our government affairs committee and they look at all the issues at the beginning of every legislative cycle. So right now we're looking at all the things that will come up in the 2011 state legislative and federal Congressional year."
But not everybody is going to agree on how to go about a particular issue. Although Spalding cannot recall a business ever leaving the Paducah Chamber because of the Chamber's lobbying, she does have this to say about potential discontent.
"I would really rather lose a member, if we're going to lose a member, over something that we're doing in a very, very aggressive position that our board has decided to take, rather than lose a member over us doing nothing."
The political ads coming from the US Chamber may not be funded by the local level chambers, but with an affiliation with the US Chamber of Commerce brand could have a negative impact upon businesses. Director of the Murray State Small Business Development Center Chris Wooldridge did not want to comment on the issue, stating his concern is with local chambers and how they represent small businesses. Elaine Spalding states she received calls questioning the Chambers stance, but said no members had left the Chamber or were planning on leaving because of the ads or alleged spending fraud. Ben Taylor echoes the statement saying he hadn't heard of any chambers having members leave because of a US Chamber position.
But even as the allegations have made the focus on Chamber spending more watched, Loretta Daniel has no ill words for her chambers.
"I personally think that the chambers in our region do a excellent job at providing great service and advocacy to the membership. They all do it differently, but I think they all do a great job at providing what their membership wants and needs. I just think we have great chambers in our region."
With election day four days away, the US Chamber of Commerce is poised to be one of the highest spending lobbying groups in this election cycle. But for local members with no direct affiliation with the US Chamber's spending, the concern stays local.