The US Chamber in the news - September 28

Chamber Drops $3.3 Million for California Repubs
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce will spend $3.3 million on advertisements aimed at electing nine California Republican House candidates, several Democratic sources tell Hotline. The Chamber bought advertising time in the nine districts Thursday. Most of the ads will run between Friday and Oct. 7, but in some more expensive markets the ad buys will run on cable until much later in the month. (National Journal)

Worried backers of Wis.'s Thompson worry about his swoon and low public profile
Republican Senate candidate Tommy Thompson, whose campaign abruptly lost momentum after enjoying a healthy lead all year, is being urged by worried supporters and insiders to raise his profile on the campaign trail and on TV to avoid being swamped by a Democratic surge in the state…Thompson released two ads last week in the wake of the bad poll numbers and two conservative groups — Karl Rove's political action committee and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — spent $1.7 million in spots last week attacking Baldwin.  (The Republic)

Dark Money Poured Into New Mexico Senate Contest
That fact, gleaned through a review of TV station political ad records now available in our Free the Files news application, highlights the role that unlimited anonymous money is playing in this year’s election…The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the only trade association spending money in Albuquerque in August, spent more than $67,000 on ads criticizing Heinrich.  Heinrich’s campaign has seized on the outside money on the conservative side even as he has benefited from dark money spending by liberal groups.  (ProPublica)

CHAMBER BOOSTS SHUSTER
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce gave a strong endorsement of Rep. Bill Shuster at an event in Altoona on Wednesday morning, praising him for his work on the new transportation law and awarding him the “Spirit of Enterprise” award. Alex Hergott, the chamber's director of transportation policy, put it this way: “Congressman Shuster’s leadership in championing federal investment in infrastructure across the country and in Pennsylvania will result in roads and bridges that keep us safe, projects that put Americans back to work, and a roadmap for the future that strengthens our nation’s economic competitiveness.”  (Politico)

US Chamber Opposes Romney Vow to Punish China on Currency
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the largest business lobbying organization, opposes Mitt Romney's pledge to designate China as a currency manipulator if he is elected president, the group's chief operating officer said. “Picking fights with trading partners probably isn’t the best way to have expansion of the global trading system,” David Chavern, also the Chamber’s executive vice president, said today at a Bloomberg Government breakfast in Washington. Competition with China, the world’s second-largest economy, has become a campaign issue as the candidates vow to protect U.S. jobs. (Businessweek)

US and Russian experts turn up volume on cybersecurity alarms
Uncontrolled security threats on the Internet could return much of the planet to an era without electricity or automated transportation, top U.S. and Russian experts said on Thursday… A Senate bill backed by President Barack Obama would have set voluntary cybersecurity standards for critical plants and allowed for greater information-sharing between intelligence agencies and private companies. But the bill encountered opposition from both the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which objected to additional regulation, and the American Civil Liberties Union, which was worried about privacy issues.  (Reuters)

Is the fracking industry bribing professors?
Over in Ohio, meanwhile, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched a media campaign called "Shale Works for US," and offers information on how oil and gas drilling are supposedly going to create jobs and transform the economy. What it failed to mention is that the optimistic employment statistics it provided were derived from an April report written by three major Ohio university professors whose study - predictably - was supported and funded by the natural gas industry. One of the report's co-authors, Robert Chase, came under the scrutiny of the Ohio Ethics Commission for having conflicts of interest and being a participant in industry-funded studies that, environmental watchdogs conclude, rely on poor disclosure and misinformation.  (Peoples World)

U.S. CHAMBER LAUNCHES CROSS-COUNTRY TOUR TO DISCUSS EDUCATION REFORM, ISSUES CALL TO ACTION FOR BUSINESS COMMUNITY
Running from October 2012 March 2013, the tour will provide an interactive forum for business, community, and education leaders to discuss local challenges and offer strategies to implement change. The forums will also include a private screening of Wont Back Down, a feature film based on the real-life story of a single mother who leads an education reform movement that transforms her daughters chronically low-performing school. Each tour event will use this film to ignite the conversation around education reform and highlight the urgency of breaking the status quo.  (US Chamber)