Even the boy's father denounced the union ads as wrong and malicious. Smith lost by less than a percentage point. Organized labor spent nearly a million dollars on behalf of his opponent. This is gold-plated voter manipulation. Evidence suggests that labor's campaign this fall, specifically targeting some 75 Republican members of Congress for defeat, is being directed in part by Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives.
Financing comes from the compulsory dues union members pay.
And while polls suggest that 2 in 5 union members vote Republican, every last drop of spending by the union commissars will go to Democrats. By contrast, the Christian Coalition's money comes from voluntary contributions by its membership. That there's no outcry from the Clinton administration or the Democratic National Committee is hardly surprising. One of Bill Clinton's first acts as president was to rescind an executive order signed by George Bush enforcing the Supreme Court's Beck decision. That 1988 ruling forbade the use of compulsory union dues for political purposes.