Mar. 26, Feature - The AFL-CIO has unveiled a new campaign to monitor Arizona Senator John McCain's economic program. The 19 million member labor organization plans to focus its campaign on five key battleground states this election year.

AFL-CIO officials said the McCain watch campaign is a component of the organization's largest ever presidential campaign. The group will set aside $55 million to fight all Republican campaigns, from the White House and Congress, to governorships, to state legislative seats. It will target 13 million union households through canvassing, phone calls, and rallies to confront the Republican economic agenda, which they say has brought the country into a recession. AFL-CIO Political Director Karen Ackerman.

"Today the AFL-CIO launches an unprecedented grassroots campaign. We will expose Senator McCain's record on economic pictures, complete his profile to include his unwavering support of George Bush's failed economic agenda and call on him to adopt instead working families policies that offer a complete break from that agenda."

The AFL-CIO said Senator McCain, like President Bush, has embraced pro-corporate economic policies like Social Security privatization, tax cuts for the wealthy and anti-worker trade policies. But, McCain campaign spokeswoman Crystal Benton said the labor group is wasting its members money on partisan attacks while John McCain advocates policies that put Americans to work.

"The AFL-CIO's campaign against John McCain isn't about working families it's about partisan politics. And while they spend millions of dollars on old style attack politics, which people are sick and tired of, John McCain is working to move America forward with a positive optimistic vision for our future."

Union officials say John McCain's senate record belies his reputation as a Republican maverick. For example, The organization points to Senator McCain's recent support for the outsourcing of a military cargo plane contract away from Boeing and to the French firm Airbus. Karen Ackerman said Senator McCain has taken stands that have led to workers losing ground on several fronts.

"Jobs? He voted to outsource them, calling himself the most free trade member of the US Senate. Paychecks? He voted against protecting workers' overtime pay. Healthcare? He's voted against health insurance for kids who desperately need it. Housing? Where's the plan? Time and time again he's sided with corporate America often at the expense of working families."

Not so said McCain campaign spokeswoman Crystal Benton. She said working families benefit from open markets for American goods, lower taxes and from less government waste.

"Senator McCain supports free trade. Pork barrel spending is rampant in Washington DC and we waste billions of dollars on earmark projects every year and Senator McCain will veto legislation with that language in it and that sort of spending allocation."

The AFL-CIO plans to spend nearly $ 7 million, or 1/8 of its campaign budget on reaching out to union voters in hotly contested states like Ohio, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota. The organization has launched a website mccainrevealed.com. The McCain campaign website is johnmccain.com. For Election Unspun, I'm Max Pringle