The US Chamber in the news - September 24

US Senate candidates face attack ad barrage
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has made it clear that it considers Montana as a top priority. The conservative group, opposed to many of the Obama administration's policies, has been blasting Tester for more than a year, spending millions on advertising. The chamber’s national political director, Rob Engstrom, said the messaging is “moving public opinion” and promised to be aggressively involved until Election Day with “serious ad buys.” (Ravalli Republic)

Florida’s Mack pushes legislation that aids political backers
Mack has introduced a resolution seeking to penalize Ecuador, citing as one reason an $18.2 billion judgment against Chevron over an environmental debacle of oil drilling pollution in the nation's Amazon rainforest. Chevron is one of the largest contributors to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has spent $1.8 million to defeat Mack's opponent, Sen. Bill Nelson. The chamber, a charitable organization under the tax code, doesn't report its donors. The $1.8 million it spent attacking Nelson is the chamber's fourth-highest total after the presidential campaign and the Ohio and Virginia Senate races.  (The Tampa Tribune)

Jerry Brown: Gearing Up a Campaign at Last?
California Gov Brown has rolled out the Proposition 30 revenue initiative, which raise income taxes on high-income folks and sales taxes (to the tune of a quarter cent) on all on a temporary basis, on several occasions now. Yet the campaign has never been especially sustained, either on the yes or no side. There was a stealthy attack from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce on Californian governance which in turn makes false attacks about supposedly hidden accounts in state government. As the Sacramento Bee points out, there is no such reality as "bureaucrats put $37 billion in hidden, unaudited accounts." I do know that the U.S. Chamber evaded the responsibility to report the actual contributors by pretending this was an informational issue ad rather than an attack on Brown's Prop 30 revenue initiative. I also know that the U.S. Chamber did the same thing in 2010 with ads attacking Brown in the guise of informational issue advertising.  (Huffington Post)

Philly Regrets Flood of Cases
Earlier this month, the Institute for Legal Reform, an arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, called Philadelphia's courts the fifth worst in the nation for "legal fairness," and said that the state could save "up to $1.7 billion" and boost employment were it to crack down on plaintiffs looking to "cash in." (The Wall Street Journal)

On the Docket: The Return of the Tort Bar
Hartford-based Standard Fire, whose parent is Travelers Insurance (ticker: TRV), is being sued by Arkansas resident Greg Knowles for allegedly failing to pay him the full amount to which he was entitled from his homeowner's policy after his residence was pounded by hail in March 2010. Knowles' suit asserts that hundreds, possibly thousands, of homeowners in Arkansas were similarly short-changed by the company….The U.S. Chamber of Commerce filed an amicus brief on behalf of the insurance company. "Congress enacted CAFA to protect class-action defendants from arbitrary, opportunistic, and abusive forum-shopping in the state courts," the Chamber argued. "The Eighth Circuit's approach threatens businesses across this nation with the very problems CAFA sought to avoid."  (Barron’s)

Coal fight looms, Keystone-like, over U.S. Northwest
In the state of Washington, just north of Oregon, the governor has been more receptive to the idea of allowing coal shipments from the Longview docks. Supporters of the coal port plans say they are prepared for a war of attrition against those who would "Before the Civil War, (battlegrounds) like Antietam and Gettysburg were mostly unheard of," said Bill Kovacs, a senior energy advisor with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which is lending help to the mining sector. "Now the fight for a sensible energy policy is being fought on the same scale in places like the Port of Morrow and Longview."  (Reuters)

US Chamber chief calls on New York to approve fracking
The head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce told New York executives Thursday that the state needs to expand natural-gas drilling, allowing a controversial process called hydraulic fracturing.  "Everybody should have a cash cow. We must seize opportunities right in front of our faces. The damn answer is right there—grab it!" Tom Donohue said. The state has been studying the issue for a few years. As it happened, Donohue's remarks came just a couple of hours after the state Department of Environmental Conservation said any new rules allowing fracking would wait even longer, until the state Department of Health first analyzes potential health impacts.  (The Business Review)

India: Foreign lobbying got government moving on reforms, say experts
Not long back, the US Chamber of Commerce had claimed it influenced at least nine key Indian government policy decisions, including the rise in foreign direct investment (FDI) to 100 per cent in single-brand retail from the earlier 51 per cent. Lobby groups from abroad, particularly the US, and their partners in India played a role in prompting the government to go for a slew of reforms on Friday, experts said.  (Business Standard)


Opinion
Editorial: For the US Senate: Sherrod Brown
As it is, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other weighty players have set
out to remove Brown from the Senate, pouring roughly $17 million into ads
pounding the senator. (Know, too, the donors are not disclosed.) The
distortions are vast. (Akron Beacon Journal)