The army of labor organizations that helped President Obama win the White House in 2008 have seen their spending power drop off dramatically since then, not only because of the unions’ shrinking membership but because so many other outside interest groups are this year spending more money than ever before.
Labor union spending on political campaigns accounted for 35 percent of all outside spending in 2008, when interest groups spent a total of $87 million. But unions accounts for just 14 percent of outside spending this year, which has already reached $174 million, according to data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The shrinking political power of traditionally Democratic labor unions coincides with the rising influence, on the other end of the ideological spectrum, of billionaire businessmen and corporations that now spend three times as much as the labor groups.
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