CONTRIBUTE TO COUNTER FOREIGN CORPORATE CAMPAIGN AD FUNDING from MOVEON.ORG 8OKT10

PLEASE consider making a contribution to MoveOn.org to counter the millions in campaign ad funding from the us chamber of commerce, funding including donations from foreign companies and possibly governments who are trying their best to buy the results of the elections in November.

After being accused of illegally laundering money from foreign corporations to pay for their campaign ads, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce just announced new ads attacking progressives including Sen. Russ Feingold and Rep. Alan Grayson. We're ready to respond immediately with ads defending our Progressive Heroes. Can you chip in $10 to help out? Contribute now

This is an urgent request.

This week, news broke that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce—one of the biggest sources of corporate cash backing Republicans this year—has been using money from foreign corporations in India, Bahrain, and elsewhere to fund its attack ads, in apparent violation of the law.¹

This explosive news could shift the course of the election if the Chamber is forced to scale back and all the right-wing candidates they're helping have to answer for this.

The Chamber knows that. Their strategy is to give no quarter and hope this blows over. In the last 48 hours they've actually spent millions more on ads targeted against progressive heroes including Russ Feingold.²

So we've been up working overnight on a new emergency ad campaign aimed at those Republicans who've been benefiting from the Chamber's help and evidently from its foreign funding—and aimed at forcing the Chamber to reveal its secret contributors. We can launch these ads immediately to keep this story from dying.

This is a huge opportunity but it wasn't in our election plan—so we need to raise $250,000 right away to do it. Can you contribute $10?

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/stopthetakeover_chamber.html?bg_id=hpc10&id=23969-17549061-Xt4O9vx&t=3

The Chamber claims that it has internal systems to keep the money separate, but the new report shows that the foreign corporations donate directly to the Chamber's general fund, which is where the funding for their political attacks comes from. This would represent a shocking disregard for longstanding American campaign finance laws, all to advance a corporate, right-wing agenda of outsourcing jobs and giving huge tax breaks to multi-national corporations.³

According to the report, the Chamber is allegedly raising money from firms in "China, India, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, Russia, and many other places." Even Russian banks and state-owned oil companies in Abu Dhabi may have contributed.

The Chamber is spending more than any other group to back right-wing Republicans and attack progressives in the election. We need to fight back, and we're ready to leap into action—but first we need to know if we have enough funds.

Can you contribute $10 immediately?

https://pol.moveon.org/donate/stopthetakeover_chamber.html?bg_id=hpc10&id=23969-17549061-Xt4O9vx&t=4

Thanks for all you do.

–Michael, Tim, Duncan, Marika, and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "Exclusive: Foreign-Funded 'U.S.' Chamber Of Commerce Running Partisan Attack Ads," ThinkProgress, October 5, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=91772&id=23969-17549061-Xt4O9vx&t=5

2. "US Chamber spends more than $10 million on ads," Associated Press, October 7, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=91872&id=23969-17549061-Xt4O9vx&t=6

3. "U.S. Chamber comes out against Senate outsourcing bill," The Hill, September 23, 2010
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=91786&id=23969-17549061-Xt4O9vx&t=7