Big Labor-Backed Group To Unleash Massive Mail Blitz In Swing States Tying McCain To Bush

http://tpmelectioncentral.talkingpointsmemo.com/2008/09/big_laborbacked_group_to_unlea.php

Big Labor-Backed Group To Unleash Massive Mail Blitz In Swing States Tying McCain To Bush
By Greg Sargent - September 17, 2008, 2:53PM

The AFL-CIO and an affiliated independent group are preparing to unleash an unusually large blitz of mailers targeting at least 1.5 million households in battleground states and across the country -- the group's first foray in a new and all-out campaign to win back Reagan and Bush-supporting Dems in the race's final stretch.

The mailer, which we obtained in advance of its public release, features testimonials from a number of these workers, including a school bus driver and Marine veteran who articulates the campaign's core message: "I voted for George W. Bush because he promised to change Washington. I'm not falling for the same old line from John McCain."



The mailer is the first big move by an outside group called Working America, which gets funding from the AFL-CIO and is the union's affiliate for non-union workers.

Working America is a group that bears watching. It's going to be doing a fair amount of heavy-lifting when it comes to winning back blue-collar "Reagan Democrats" who supported Bush in 2004 and risk being seduced by McCain's claim to being the race's real change agent -- hence the mailer's message.

Working America and the AFL-CIO will blast out the mailer next week to some 270,000 households in the swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, and to another 1.3 million union households in those states and across the country.

"This is a new front in the effort to reach working-class moderates on the pocketbook issues that are critical to them this election year," Karen Nussbaum, Executive Director of Working America, tells us.

"Our members have seen their living standards decline, their communities decay and their economic security disappear," Nussbaum continues. "Yet John McCain still thinks the fundamentals of our economy are strong."

The group -- which claims 2.5 million members in 11 states, including 800,000 in Ohio alone -- plans more mailers and on-the-ground organizing in the weeks ahead.

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We've got your back, too.