WSJ: Citizens United Lets Unions Scour for Obama Backers Outside Their Membership!!!

[Omaha Steve]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443615804578042692118832454.html

By MELANIE TROTTMAN

CLEVELAND—On a recent morning here, union member Robert Robinson knocked on the door of nonunion insurance agent Ben Rodriguez, hoping to secure another vote for President Barack Obama's re-election.

Two years ago such a visit by a union representative could have been illegal.


Andrew Spear for The Wall Street Journal

Robert Robinson, right, canvassed recently for President Obama at the Cleveland home of Ben Rodriguez, who isn't a union member.


The change is the result of new campaign-finance laws that are reshaping, among other things, how organized labor rallies voters this fall. The Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision allowed unions, for the first time, to knock on doors and make phone calls to prospective voters who aren't their members.

The shift has significantly widened the pool of voter targets for labor, a major ally of Democrats that spends heavily on elections. Much attention on the Citizens United decision has focused on how it allows corporations unlimited spending on election activity as long as it isn't directly tied to a campaign, which is generally thought to help Republicans. But the ruling also handed unions that and other powerful new tools, including more freedom in how they spend members' dues.

FULL story at link.

[WCGreen]

1. They have been doing this for years by setting up political action units that can go out

and canvass...

Not that big of a change. Certainly not on the level as free anonymous money from billionaire.

[Nye Bevan]

2. Stories like this help me understand why the ACLU supports Citizens United (nt)