Mar. 26, Interview - The AFL-CIO's 53 million dollar campaign is more than they've ever spent in an election year. The money is not organized through a Political Action Committee, instead allowable through a special outlet for unions called 501c5. It's highly regulated. It does not allow for direct campaigning of candidates. But it's well funded and influential, attempting to persuade members and their families to vote for labor friendly officials.

We asked Gary Kalman is Director of US PIRG's legislative office if any sort of equivalent organization exists on the Republican side, a similar organization to target Democratic candidates.

".. while most Labor money tends to go to the Democrats, it's not 100 percent. So probably the fairer comparison is to talk about labor money versus business money. The business money is a little more dispersed amongst different kind of PAC's and Political Committees. So there's not one committee, the Chamber of Commerce is not quite the equivalent of the AFL but if you took the business community PAC's together, that's probably the right comparison."

Kalmen says that if the money is raised through wealthy members 'raised in very large quantities it's disturbing because the percentage of the electorate that can contribute 5,000 dollars is very small. But if their raising it 20 bucks at a time from folks who are working on the factory floor, it's a little bit less of a concern.'

An AFL-CIO spokesperson said the money comes from their affiliates, some, but not all, comes from member dues. Some comes from additional donations.

That was Gary Kalman with US PIRG.