The U.S. Chamber in the News - October 9

Posted by Elizabeth Ben-Ishai on October 09, 2012

Low Hopes for FCPA Guidance
Experts have low expectations for a coming guidance on U.S. foreign bribery law, though one former prosecutor said it could create one stop-shopping for many aspects of the law. The quest for guidance came out of a pitched lobbying campaign, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, to amend the FCPA, which bars bribes to foreign officials for business purposes. Among other things, the Chamber and its enlisted trade groups have been clamoring for a tighter definition of who counts as a foreign official, the addition of a corporate compliance defense and limiting the liability of a parent company for the acts of a subsidiary.  [The Wall Street Journal]

Video: US Chamber Launches Ads Supporting Utah Dem Jim Matheson
It's part of a larger buy that includes 9 House contests across the nation. Scott Reed, the Chamber's senior political strategist, said the group is playing a big role in states with a significant number of House races. This round of advertising comes on top of a $3.3 million ad buy earlier this week, which we first reported, focused on competitive California races.  “This is part of our spend-to-the-end strategy designed to break through the clutter with substantial media campaigns that will impact these races," Reed said. "In places like California, New York and Illinois, we see an opportunity to move the needle for pro-business candidates and engage in races that other groups are not targeting because there is not a competitive presidential or senate race there." [Utah Policy]

CD-41: California Democrats launch anti-Tavaglione mailers
Responding to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's attack ad targeting congressional candidate Mark Takano's stance on taxes, the state Democratic Party is launching a mail campaign in opposition to Takano's Republican opponent, John Tavaglione. The mailers contain images from the Chamber’s ad, which suggested Takano would support tax increases for small businesses, a claim that Takano has rejected. [Press-Enterprise]

In Ohio, Mandel's Senate bid faces Dems' scrutiny
Jerry Mandel said when he entered the race he was the "sacrificial lamb," but it's Sen. Sherrod Brown who has been quartered and roasted by some $19 million in negative ads from Republican-leaning groups such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. [Huffington Post]

Negative attacks fill airwaves in Thompson-Baldwin race
Outside groups have played a huge role in the ad wars. When Wesleyan looked at all Senate races during the last three weeks of September, independent groups accounted for a larger share of the ad spending in Wisconsin than in all but two other Senate races, Ohio and Virginia.  They have been especially important on the Republican side this fall because of Thompson’s money struggles. Between Sept. 3 and Oct. 2, the Thompson campaign accounted for only one quarter of the broadcast TV spending on the GOP side.  Outside groups made up the rest, led by Crossroads GPS and the US Chamber of Commerce.  [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

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New U.S. Chamber attacks on corporate political spending disclosure are a good sign

How can you tell that momentum is building for change?

Well, one good sign is that the opposition starts getting nervous about your progress.

That’s why we took it as a positive sign that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently stepped up attacks on shareholders who attempt to make companies disclose political spending.

Earlier this month, I attended an almost comical presentation at the U.S. Chamber headquarters where speakers spent most of a four hour event attacking political spending disclosure resolutions as being bad for business.

I say ‘almost’ comical because, while much of the information is laughably wrong, the subject matter is far too important to joke about.

There are a number of things wrong with what I heard at this event, but I’d like to focus on two disturbing claims in particular.

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